


My Answer Is You

by FeliciaSueLynn



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Radio, Angst, ChanSoo - Freeform, F/M, KaiSoo - Freeform, M/M, Romance, Sebaek - Freeform, Very light smut, also basically a love letter to the city but w/e, baeksoo friendship, dj!au, like blink and you'll miss it, set in chicago because it is convenient for me, unknown (for readers) end game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-03
Updated: 2017-07-17
Packaged: 2018-08-28 20:37:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 26
Words: 35,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8462140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeliciaSueLynn/pseuds/FeliciaSueLynn
Summary: Radio DJ, Kyungsoo, spent his entire life to this point focused on being on the air in the best time slot available: the weekday morning slot when everyone is heading to work. Now in the position he wanted so badly, he realizes something is missing from his life. Between his best friend, Baekhyun trying to set him up and his new neighbors, though, he suddenly doesn't have the time to try and figure out what exactly is missing or how to fix it.





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> This is super unedited. Sorry! Also, this is cross posted to AFF.

“You’re listening to KZ105.5, your local R&B fix, it’s currently 6:04 AM and traffic heading into Chicago is looking good so far but we haven’t gotten into rush hour just yet,” Kyungsoo speaks in the low voice he uses when he’s on air into the microphone, “That was Love Me Know by John Legend.”

“Coming up after the break,” Baekhyun’s voice cuts in, “The Weeknd’s new single featuring Daft Punk and going old school with some late 90s Mary J. Blige so stick around.”

Kyungsoo and Baekhyun pull their headphones down to hang around their neck while commercials play to the audience. 

“Yah, Kyungsoo,” Baekhyun says, “What are you doing this weekend? I’m gonna go visit my family, want to come with? They’re always less annoying if I bring you.”

Baekhyun’s mischievous grin gives away his true intentions. He’s been trying to set Kyungsoo up with this guy he went to school with for months. Kyungsoo likes the man well enough but there’s no spark. 

“So you can accidentally run into an old friend you need to catch up with and leave me with Jongin? I’ll pass. Say hello to your mother for me. I loved the risotto recipe she sent me.”

Baekhyun rolls his eyes, “So what are you doing this weekend then? Staying home?”

“So what if I am,” Kyungsoo says defensively, “there’s nothing wrong with that.”

“I just want you to be happy, you know, I haven’t seen you date anyone in years.”

“So I should be more like you,” Kyungsoo counters, “New man candy every three weeks?”

“Boys, I hate to break up a good argument but you’re back on in 30 seconds,” Their boss Junmyeon cuts over them through the intercom.

“Right, sorry,” Kyungsoo says glaring pointedly at Baekhyun. They slip their headphones back over their ears and switch back into hosting the morning radio show. The rest of their weekday morning show goes by uneventful. Baekhyun thankfully doesn’t bring up Kyungsoo’s lack of love life again and they pass the show off to Luhan without a hitch.

They’re walking out of the building when Baekhyun tries again, “Kyungsoo, if I promise not to try and set you up with Jongin will you come with me? I’ll be leaving Friday right after our show ends. Please?”

Kyungsoo pauses before opening the door to go out onto the busy streets of Chicago. 

“Why do you need me to come if you’re not going to try and...Oh,” Kyungsoo realizes with a smile, “You haven’t been calling your mother. You need someone to soften the blow.”

“Please, please, please, please,” Baekhyun begs, “I’ll do the radio research for a month.”

“I don’t mind doing research for the show.”

“I’ll clean your apartment,” Baekhyun tries but one look from Kyungsoo has him scraping that, “I’ll...Dammit Soo can’t you just come with.”

Kyungsoo’s smile is one Baekhyun has seen often and spells certain doom for the older man.

“Fine. I guess I’ll just deal with it.”

They continue walking out of the building heading to the El station together. Kyungsoo has his hands shoved in his pockets and he stares down at the pavement as he walks his head in the clouds as he listens to Baekhyun ramble about why he couldn’t possibly have spared the time to call his mother.

Maybe he should try dating. He wouldn’t dare admit it to Baekhyun because he’d never hear the end of it but he has been a little lonely. He was so focused on being a radio DJ that he forgot to make a life outside of work. He probably wouldn’t still be friends with Baekhyun if they both hadn’t gotten into KZ right out of college.

He looks over at Baekhyun who’s moved onto a new subject. Kyungsoo gives his head a slight shake. No, he’s happy with his life. This is just Baekhyun’s boy obsession getting into his head. He focuses on Baekhyun.

“Really, Soo, this guy is the one for sure.”

“Oh, well,” Kyungsoo’s smile reflects that he doesn’t believe a word Baekhyun just said, “Do let me know when the wedding is.”

“You don’t believe me, but mark my words. It’ll happen. As I was saying, I’ve gotta go. I’m gonna meet him for lunch. See you tomorrow.”

Baekhyun continues on the street while Kyungsoo takes the steps up to catch the Purple line to Belmont. He would never admit aloud that Baekhyun might be right. He couldn’t bare to inflate his friend’s impossible ego more than it already it, but Kyungsoo has been feeling like something is missing from his life lately. Maybe he is lonely.

His only friends are his co-workers. He hangs out mostly with Baekhyun but they’ve been friends since they were unlikely roommates in college. He occasionally goes out with Junmyeon, his boss, and the social media guy, Zitao, can be fun. Socially he isn’t exactly the most popular but he does have a social life. He just doesn’t like to be social very often. 

He hasn’t dated, really, since college and he seems to have the spare time now. But forcing himself to go out and meet people seems dumb. Maybe he really should let Baekhyun try and set him up. 

Kyungsoo gets to his apartment and unlocks the front door to find one of the leasing consultants leading a pregnant woman and a man down the stairs. 

“The buildings are very well kept and every apartment gets two parking spaces. A hot commodity in any Chicago neighborhood. Ah, this is Kyungsoo, he lives in the apartment next to the one I just showed you,” Heather, the leasing agent, says and turns to Kyungsoo.

The pregnant woman’s eyes land on him and she smiles, “The apartment is lovely but I’m a bit worried about all these stairs…”

The woman goes on but Kyungsoo just smiles politely and walks past them to his own apartment. He forgot the apartment next to him was empty. Hard to believe considering the people who lived there before were loud all the time, especially in the middle of the night. Heather seems determined to get it rented though if all the apartment visits he’s noticed this week are anything to go by. 

He unlocks his own door and steps into his apartment. It’s rather small but he doesn’t need that much room to begin with. He stretches and plops down on his black leather sofa. Debating whether or not taking a nap would be a good idea when he’ll have to be up again at 3:30am to get ready for work.

He decides against it and turns his TV just to have some background noise in the apartment. His mind still occupied with the conversation with Baekhyun earlier. It’s not the first time Baekhyun has tried to set Kyungsoo up and it certainly won’t be the last but he’s been so pushy about it lately and it’s definitely been making Kyungsoo think more about relationships and his lack of one.

In the end he decides that no chemistry is no chemistry and sticks to his decision not to go home with Baekhyun. Plus, Baekhyun is always more easy to handle after he’s had a good, well deserving scolding from mother.


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, super unedited. Oh well. I really need to find a beta. Lol.

It’s Saturday morning and Kyungsoo has plans to do nothing but read the entire day. He needs to catch up. He’s got several books out from the library one of which is for the book club he’s part of and the meeting is Monday afternoon. He joined the group in an effort to make friends and he has in a way. But most of the members are older woman who like to give him life advice. Good for meeting once a month but not good for going to the bar or catching lunches together. Either way he ended up loving the book club which is why he tries to hard to read the book for it each month even when it’s not really the kind of book he likes, like this month. 

Even better, Baekhyun is not in town to ruin his plans for the day by randomly showing up and dragging him out of the apartment for “his own good” as his, annoying but lovable, best friend so often does on the weekends. 

Kyungsoo is reading peacefully in his living room when he hears the truck pull up outside through his open window. It’s crisp fall day and it’s bringing an amazing breeze through the window but it also brought the loud laugh of the people moving into the apartment next to him.

Heather had still been showing the apartment off two days ago. He knew she wanted to turn the apartment around quickly but he didn’t think it’d be that quick. He just hopes these new neighbors are more considerate than the last.

They both laugh heartily and loudly as they clamber into the apartment. His old neighbors liked to blast music at all hours of the day but normally the walls are quite thick. Unless you’re being obnoxious it’s hard to get noise through the thick walls. However, he hears his new neighbors talking as they open their apartment and step in. And hears when they don’t close the door and talk loudly debating over where to put the furniture and what to bring up first.

Snapping his book closed with more force than completely necessary, Kyungsoo sighs and resigns himself to not having the peaceful day to read liked he’d hoped. He just wants one day to catch up on his library books but the noise is too distracting. 

His phone vibrates loudly where it’s resting on the ledge of his large picture window. Seeing it’s Baekhyun, he answers begrudgingly. His day is already disturbed it’s not like talking to Baekhyun will make things worse.

“Hello,” Kyungsoo answers the phone flatly.

“How’s your weekend going,” Baekhyun replies a mischievous smile evident in his voice, “Mom and Jongin were asking why you didn’t come by the way.”

Kyungsoo rolls his eyes, he should have know this would be a guilt trip, granted a light hearted one.

“Oh, really,” Kyungsoo says complete disinterest filtering into his voice.

“Yea. If I recall Jongin said something along the lines of where’s that cute friend you always bring with you.”

“I don’t believe he said anything like that.”

“Don’t sound so exasperated. He may not have used so many words but he essentially said that. He does like you.”

“That’s sweet,” Kyungsoo says voice as flat as pane of glass, “That doesn’t mean we’ll be compatible, Baek, can’t you just let it go?

“Fine for now. How’s staying home then?”

“You know how that apartment next to me was vacant,” Kyungsoo asks and Baekhyun hums in response, “It looks like two rather rowdy guys are moving in. I just keep hearing them laugh and banter as they move their stuff in.”

“Are they cute boys?”

“I don’t know.”

“You should make them something to welcome them to the neighborhood and find out. Maybe get their numbers,” Baekhyun suggests, “it’s good to be friends with your neighbors. Especially if they’re cute.”

“Boy crazy,” Kyungsoo accuses though he can’t keep the affection for Baekhyun out of his voice.

“Maybe, but it really wouldn’t hurt to be friends with your neighbors. Maybe now you’ll be able to sleep through the night without having to pound on the walls passive aggressively.”

“Shut up and go help your mother.”

“How do you know she needs help?”

“Because it’s almost lunch time and you’re home so she’s in the kitchen.”

“Brat,” Baekhyun says, “Seriously you should meet them.”

“I’ll think about it okay,” Kyungsoo comprises.

“That’s all I ask, try not to be a hermit this weekend. I’ll see you bright and early Monday.”

He should try to meet his neighbors, he knows it’s a good thing. He’d have to do a grocery trip first if he was going to bring them anything so maybe he’ll try to meet them tomorrow.

Kyungsoo stands up, stretches, and leans over the big ledge of his window to peek out into the parking lot when he hears them head back down stairs. All he can see are two heads of dark, shaggy hair moving in and out of a rusty looking rented box truck; the words Rent for just $15 an hour plastered on every side. 

He slides the window shut on the noise outside and his apartment is decidedly more quiet. So much for a nice breeze but at least he should be able to go back to reading his book. He moves to his bedroom and shuts his door. It’s very effective at shutting out the two men’s banter and Kyungsoo immerses himself in the world of words once more.

He physically jumps when the doorbell sounds through his apartment. Why his complex installed doorbells on everyone’s door despite the fact that the door into the building locked, he’ll never know, but now he’s cursing the idea. He could ignore whoever was at the door if they had knocked. 

For the second time that day, he snaps his book shut. It can’t be Baekhyun and anyone from work would not have disturbed him on the weekend. Most have been at the receiving end of his glare and wouldn’t do anything to be there again if they can avoid it.

Sighing, Kyungsoo makes sure he looks at least presentable in the full length mirror hanging from the back of his bedroom door before leaving his room. Kyungsoo peeks through the hole in the door to see but his vision is filled with a neck that ends in a black t-shirt collar before flowing out to broad shoulders. Whoever it is, must have be incredibly tall, Kyungsoo thinks.

He opens the door and stares blankly at the stranger standing before him.


	3. Chapter Three

“Hi,” the tall man thrusts his hand into the open space between them, “I'm Chanyeol. My roommate and I just moved in next door.”

Kyungsoo restrains the sarcastic comment about knowing that and says, “Ah, right. I'm Kyungsoo. It's nice to meet you.”

A small, awkward silence lapses between them. Chanyeol looks down and shoves his hands in his pockets bouncing forewords and back on the balls of his feet.

Kyungsoo takes a moment to assess the man in front of him. He has shaggy light brown hair that he keeps swishing to the side with a flick of his head. Broad shoulders turn into very toned biceps and then defined forearms. Kyungsoo didn’t know forearms could be that attractive honestly but his eyes move on to the slim waist and legs that last for days.

Chanyeol stops shifting awkwardly on his feet then scratches the side of his forehead before looking up at Kyungsoo again. A slight smirk gracing his features letting Kyungsoo know he was caught checking the other out. He’s not really embarrassed but he would rather Chanyeol hadn’t realized he did that. 

“I know this is a little weird but I was wondering if you had a small tool kit we could borrow. Or even just a hammer and some screw drivers,” he amends after seeing the look on Kyungsoo’s face. Realizing he's scowling, Kyungsoo tries to school his features into the pleasant look people meeting new people usually have. 

“Yea, I have one,” Kyungsoo says thinking of Baekhyun telling him to be neighborly. Lending them tools he hardly ever uses is neighborly, right? At least he doesn't care if he gets it back. “Wait a second. I'll go get it.”

Kyungsoo backs into his apartment leaving the door open and Chanyeol takes a few steps in and looks around. 

“Do you like minimalist decorating,” Chanyeol asks.

“Yes,” he replies and continues rummaging in the closet he remembered throwing the small toolkit last time he used it. At last he finds it hidden under a pile of neatly folded sheets that he knows he'll end up refolding.

He turns around to hand it to Chanyeol but the man has wandered to Kyungsoo’s desk where he has a mini radio studio set up so he can practice.

“Are you a producer or something,” Chanyeol asks.

“Something like that,” he replies, “here's the tool kit.”

“Are you always so short with your answers,” Chanyeol questions a grin like he’s in on a secret Kyungsoo isn’t spreads across his elvish face. Kyungsoo wonders if it's neighborly to ask so many somewhat rude questions when you first meet a new neighbor.

“Are you always this invasive with people you’ve just met?

Chanyeol turns away from the equipment smile still broadly spread across his face. He let’s out a small laugh, “Ah, awesome. Thank you. I promise I'll get it back to you before you miss it.” 

“Take your time,” Kyungsoo says deciding to take a hint from Chanyeol and ignore the previous conversation and walks Chanyeol to the door. 

“It was nice meeting you. We’ll have to hang out sometime,” Chanyeol throws a dazzling smile at Kyungsoo. 

Kyungsoo nods and waves a bit awkwardly while Chanyeol backs away to his own door. 

Shutting his own door, Kyungsoo breathes a sigh of relief. Why did Baekhyun have to jinx him? Of course it would be a really cut, charming man who needs tools moving in next door. 

Meeting Chanyeol now certainly threw a wrench in his plans. He was going to bake a cake and bring it over tomorrow to meet them. But would it be weird now? He isn't sure.

Either way Kyungsoo made up his mind to bake the cake and he hasn’t met the other guy who moved in so it shouldn’t be too weird to show up tomorrow with a cake he reasons. He grabs his wallet and throws a discreet hat on his head. His least favorite part of being a popular radio host is that he somehow gets recognized in public. 

If he could keep total anonymity as a radio host he would. Damn those billboards his station has put all over the listening area with his and Baekhyun’s faces on them. Curse Baekhyun for having such a commercially attractive face, he thinks darkly as he walks to the grocery store a few blocks from his complex. 

He gets what he needs from the store without a hitch and even gets home with enough time to finish his book club book and go to bed at his usual time to avoid messing with his carefully managed sleep schedule. 

He does end up sleeping in though he didn’t mean to. Getting up at 3:30am when he doesn’t have to seems a little excessive, even to him.

He bakes the cake almost immediately after waking up and wraps in up nicely in the disposable cake pan with plastic lid he bought for it. He sits down at his couch and looks at the cake sitting on his dining room table. Now he just has to figure out when would be the best time to go over there. He waits anxiously for the better part of the morning until he hears hammering and unpacking noises start up again in their apartment.

He takes a deep breath, grabs the cake, and walk the few steps out of his apartment to the door and rings the bell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's just gonna get angsty from here. I hope you enjoyed it. :D


	4. Chapter Four

Kyungsoo hears hammering abruptly stop and a few seconds later someone is opening the door. He expects Chanyeol and instead is greeted with a young man about his height. He has longish dark brown hair that's parted down the middle each side falling against his forehead in a way Kyungsoo knows would look ridiculous on anyone else. 

“Hi, I'm Jongdae,” he says. 

“I'm Kyungsoo, I figured I'd welcome you to the complex. I live just there,” he replies pointing awkwardly to his apartment door.

“Oh right, you're the one who loaned us the tools. Much appreciated. Chanyeol is absolutely awful to deal with if he doesn't sleep in a bed,” Jongdae laughs and steps back to let Kyungsoo in. The apartment is more together than Kyungsoo thought it would be. The living room looks mostly set up aside from the unopened boxes stacked throughout the room.

Following behind Jongdae to kitchen, Kyungsoo admires the well built form of Jongdae from the back. Of course both of these boys had to be cute. Though Jongdae isn’t really his type, he can admire the stretch of taut muscles he sees through the tight fabric of the other man’s t-shirt.

Jongdae chatters on reminding Kyungsoo of Baekhyun,“Chanyeol just stepped out to get some coffee but he should be back any minute if you'd like to wait. What did you bring us by the way?”

“It's a chocolate cake. Oh shit, you guys aren't allergic to chocolate are you,” Kyungsoo questions nervously. The thought of allergies completely slipped his mind yesterday when he was deciding what to make.

“Definitely not. So, Kyungsoo, Chanyeol tells me you do something with music?”

Kyungsoo opens his mouth to answer but Jongdae cuts him off, “that's awesome. Chanyeol’s a musician actually. He's alright I guess.”

The smile Jongdae has while talking clearly shows he's teasing even if Chanyeol isn't there to hear it. 

“Myself, I'm just an engineer. But it’s creative in it’s own way.”

There's a knock at the door and Kyungsoo thanks whatever god that's listening for getting Jongdae to stop talking so Kyungsoo can catch up. Jongdae seems nice enough but Kyungsoo was not prepared for the onslaught.

“Chanyeol,” he hears Jongdae question and Kyungsoo turns to see Chanyeol walk through the door sheepishly. 

“I forgot my keys, I only got up here because someone was coming out the front door when I walked up,” Chanyeol lets out a short laugh and rubs the side of his head, “Oh Kyungsoo. Did you come back for the tools? We aren’t quite done.”

Kyungsoo once again tries to answer only to have Jongdae beat him to it, “No he brought by cake to welcome us.”

Chanyeol’s eyes light up and land on the container in front of Kyungsoo on the counter. He makes a beeline for Kyungsoo, sets the coffee cups he’s holding on the counter, and wraps him up in a hug. Kyungsoo freezes unable to move and too shocked to try.

“Thanks, man,” Chanyeol says releasing Kyungsoo. Chanyeol searches in an opened box next to the counter until he pulls out a handful of forks. He takes one and sets the rest on the counter and cracks open the container digging into the cake without even cutting himself a slice. He stuffs a forkful in his mouth.

“This is delicious,” Chanyeol mumbles around the cake. 

“I’m glad you like it,” Kyungsoo replies. He’s not sure if he’s repulsed or happy that Chanyeol decided to stuff his face with the cake right away. 

“It does look good,” Jongdae adds and takes a fork off the counter to start eating it. 

“Kyungsoo, do you want in on this,” Chanyeol asks and points to the cake.

“Ah, no thanks. I made it for you. Anyways, I should be going. I’m sure you guys have a lot to do.”

Kyungsoo starts walking to the door but it stopped almost immediately by both men.

“Hey wait,” Jongdae says putting his fork down and turning fully to Kyungsoo, “do you mind exchanging numbers? My mother says it’s always good to have the number of at least one neighbor.”

Kyungsoo tries to keep his facial features neutral but it’s difficult when all he can think is how ridiculous that sounds. Not wanting to be rude, though, Kyungsoo writes his number down on the piece of paper handed to him and doesn’t make a fuss when he’s given both of their numbers in return on a sheet torn from a notebook. 

“Well, enjoy the cake. I’m sure I’ll see you around,” Kyungsoo says and finally walks out of the apartment. He’s exhausted both mentally and physically but he finds he’s happy he did it. At least now he can tell Baekhyun he didn’t spend the entire weekend in his apartment. 

He does go back to his apartment and flips on the TV channel surfing. His phone rings loudly from his pocket and he sighs recognizing the song Baekhyun set for his personal ringtone. The cheesy love song lyrics spill from his phone and Kyungsoo heavily resists rolling his eyes before he answers.

“So how did it go,” Baekhyun asks.

“Hello to you, too,” Kyungsoo replies but his good mood is given away in the smile in his voice.

“Ah, that cute, huh?”

“I didn’t say they were cute. Though I suppose they are. But they seem nice.”

“So, what happened?”

Kyungsoo gives Baekhyun the details in a play by play of what happened from the moment he hung up with Baekhyun yesterday to the moment he called again with only a few interjections from Baekhyun. 

“So it seems like you could make some friends. Are you going to try?”

“Maybe. I already got their numbers. Though honestly, I’m not sure I can handle two chatty, little shits.”

“Are Chanyeol and Jongdae like that, you think?”

“I was refering to you and Jongdae actually,” Kyungsoo replies.

“You love me, so shut it. I’ll see you tomorrow. I’m almost back to Chicago now. I’m meeting up with Rob for dinner so I won’t have time to come drag you away from your apartment.”

“Just try not to stay out too late. I don’t want to have to carry your ass through the show tomorrow.”

“Yea, yea. Mom. I’ll be good. See you bright and early tomorrow."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is kinda filler-y. I wanted to flesh out the characters/world a bit more. Thoughts, Comments, Concerns?


	5. Chapter Five

Kyungsoo is sitting in the studio reviewing the notes for the day’s show when Baekhyun comes rolling in with only 10 minutes until they’re live. He’s got sunglasses on and what smells like the strongest coffee in the world steaming from a large cup in his hand. Kyungsoo smirks at the obviously hungover man.

“Look what the cat dragged in, do I even want to know? Bright and early my ass,” Kyungsoo talks a bit louder than the small room really calls for just to watch Baekhyun wince. 

Baekhyun flicks Kyungsoo off before sitting down in his chair across from Kyungsoo. He sighs heavily setting his cup carefully on the table next to the broadcasting console.

“I ended up letting Rob convince me to go clubbing,” Baekhyun mumbles, “Then we broke up because I wanted to dance and he refused.”

“I thought he was the one,” Kyungsoo smirks.

“Can it, asshole. Let me prepare for the show.”

Kyungsoo flashes Baekhyun one more self satisfied smirk before they both quiet down to go over the notes. Junmyeon’s voice crackles over the intercom to tell them they’re live in 1 minute. They do the last minute prep and the show starts. 

The show goes smoothly, though Kyungsoo can’t remember a time when it didn’t go smoothly since he was put in the morning slot. He’s known for being able to smoothly recover whatever mishap Baekhyun may have spilled. After the show they go into the break room to get coffee and chat a little bit. 

“How’s your hangover,” Kyungsoo teases. Baekhyun drops into a seat at the round table in the break room and Kyungsoo pours the two cups of coffee before sitting down across from him.

Baekhyun glares at him, “Are you speaking?”

Kyungsoo snickers and says, “Should I speak louder?”

“Fine, shut up. My head feels slightly better. I’m gonna go home and sleep this off until class.”

“Oh, the hapkido class you teach has started again?”

“Yea. Well you know how I normally work with just the kids?”

Kyungsoo nods grabbing a donut from the box labeled free sitting between them at the table and nibbling on it.

“Apparently this one guy is so bad that they’ve asked him to train with the kids class for a while.”

Kyungsoo laughs, “Really?”

“Yea. So now some like 24 year old guy is gonna be there with all the 7 and 8 year olds. If I was him I just wouldn’t be trying to learn,” Baekhyun says, laughing lightly before finishing the rest of his coffee.

“Poor guy. He must really be bad. They have a beginner’s class for adults, right? And he got kicked out of that.”

Baekhyun nods, “I’ll let you know how it goes tomorrow. See ya.”

He stands up with small wave and disappears through the door leaving Kyungsoo alone with his thoughts. Though honestly he would rather not because his thoughts are on a certain tall man who is way too touchy feely.

Sighing heavily, Kyungsoo leaves work as well heading home to put the finishing touches on the notes for tomorrow’s show so he can send them to Baekhyun their boss. He’s seated at his desk, working with giant, wireless headphones on but nothing playing at that moment when his doorbell rings loudly through his apartment. He pulls the headphones down to hang around his neck before opening the door.

“Hi! I brought back your toolbox,” Chanyeol says with a big, dopey smile spread easily across his face. Kyungsoo goes to take the tools from him but instead Chanyeol steps into his apartment in the space between Kyungsoo and the open door. He shuts the door easily behind him and then hands the box to Kyungsoo. 

“Um...Okay. Thank you,” Kyungsoo replies extremely confused by this turn of events, he puts the toolbox back in the closet while Chanyeol sinks into his couch. Kyungsoo’s desk is behind the couch against the back of it and Chanyeol sits at the end the desk isn’t pressed against.

“What are you up to today? No work,” Chanyeol asks. Kyunngsoo wonders why he’s prying but decides to answer the question anyway. Maybe he could learn more about his neighbor aside from the fact that he seems to have no personal boundaries about anything.

“Uh, no. I’ve already finished. I work 5 am to 11.”

“Doing what?”

“I’m a radio DJ. What about you,” Kyungsoo fires back sick of answering questions.

“Oh. Something similar. I’m in the music industry.”

Kyungsoo nods sagely and looks at his screen. He was in the middle of researching a new bit Junmyeon asked him to put together but he was having no luck with it. All the better Chanyeol decided to invade his apartment he supposes.

“A radio DJ, huh? Do you like it?”

Kyungsoo nods and the apartment goes silent for a little bit. Chanyeol’s looking around and Kyungsoo watches him for a few minutes before breaking the silence.

“So, uh, was there a reason you came over beside to return the tools,” he asks trying not to be rude but Chanyeol did invite himself in.

“Oh, Jongdae isn’t home and I was bored.”

“That’s it?”

“Pretty much.”

Kyungsoo gives Chanyeol a hard look. He’s utterly confused by this man.

“I’m afraid I’m also pretty boring. We’re in Chicago. Plenty to do in the area.”

Chanyeol’s smile falls a little, “I have a hard time being in public.”

Kyungsoo didn’t think Chanyeol with his bright personality and ease with talking to Kyungsoo at least would have social anxiety but it isn’t his place to judge so he accepts it and moves on.

They chat for the rest of the afternoon until Chanyeol states he has to leave to get ready for work. He’s happy though. He thinks he could easily call Chanyeol a friend now. All he can think is take that Baekhyun. Kyungsoo still doesn’t know what Chanyeol does exactly but it seems he works evenings. Chanyeol lets himself out and Kyungsoo gets back to work.


	6. Chapter 6

Baekhyun groans and reaches around the pillow he’s cuddling to find his phone and turn off the alarm blaring from somewhere amongst his sheets. He swears looking at the time and gets up to prepare for the hapkido class. He throws on sweats and grabs his bag with his hapkido uniform to change into once he reaches the dojang. He grabs a protein bar and rushes out the door. 

At this rate he’ll be just on time for his class but it was worth it for the nap. It did his hangover wonders, as did the greasy cheeseburger from McDonald’s he grabbed after work that morning. The walk to the dojang is 10 minutes at a brisk walk and Baekhyun is just barely not running so he can make it on time. He changes quickly in the locker room and almost runs straight into somehow walking at a leisurely place out the door and onto the main floor of the gym. 

How Baekhyun missed the guy he’ll never know considering he’s almost a head taller than himself with a shock of blonde hair on top with the bottom shaved and dark. They both end up sprawled on the floor. The guy pouts at him but stands up, brushes himself off and leaves the locker room. 

Baekhyun huffs but stands up and heads to the floor. The kids are waiting in line in at ease position like they were taught but the blonde guy from before is lounging on the floor his arm propped up by a knee the other supporting his torso as he stares at the kids. Baekhyun’s eyebrow twitches and he takes a slow breath through his nose and pushes out his lips before starting.

“Hello class, it seems we have a new student and we need to teach him how to prepare. Who wants to tell this young man how he should stand to greet his instructor?”

One of the kids raises their hand and Baekhyun nods for him to continue. 

“You have to stand with your feet apart and you hands together behind your back,” the kid explains in earnest. Baekhyun smiles. He’d never admit it to a soul but he really loves kids and turns to mush for them almost instantly. He’d spoil any children he had rotten. Though if this guy is any indication of what happens when you spoil a child he thinks he’d better not have kids. The guy instead of standing up repositions to sit indian style to stare blankly at Baekhyun.

Baekhyun resists physically rolling his eyes though he definitely is on the inside and says, “Please Mr….”

“Sehun Oh,” the man supplies looking curiously at Baekhyun. Baekhyun puts on his best dealing with something aggravating smile.

“Please, Mr. Oh,stand up at attention like James just explained.”

Sehun does physically roll his eyes blowing breath out in a sigh but stands up and clasps his hands behind his back. His shoulders are slouched instead of slung back but Baekhyun figures he could work on that later. 

He runs the class through a warm up all of which Sehun Oh half heartedly at best or decides not to do at all and suddenly he realized why he of all people was stuck with this guy in his class. It’s because here he could get away with doing bare minimum and it won’t hinder the class or the other students. This little shit will be the end of him, Baekhyun thinks.

He sets the kids up practicing form. He walks around correcting things here and there before coming up to Sehun whose form is so bad Baekhyun isn’t sure there’s any hope for him. 

“If you aren’t going to try, why are you here,” Baekhyun asks. Sehun looks at him that same blank look on his face.

“I’m paying for the classes, aren’t I?”

“Yea. And I’m saying if you’re paying for classes but not putting in the effort, why are you here?”

Honestly nothing annoys Baekhyun more than watching someone waste his time by not putting any effort in. 

“I’m here to learn.”

Baekhyun scoffs, “Then straighten up your form.”

Baekhyun pushes Sehun’s back in while pulling the younger man’s shoulders back to fix his posture and then raises his arms into the correct positions. 

“Like this. And then punch forward. Don’t forget to expel air from your abdomen and not your chest. I’ll be able to tell.”

Baekhyun steps back to watch Sehun perform the drill but he just stays in the same position for a while before turning his head to look at Baekhyun. Baekhyun gives him a look that clearly says, well go on.

Frowning slightly, Sehun throws a clumsy punch that throws him entirely off balance and gives a half hearted yell before dropping the stance all together. He rubs the back of his head.

“It’s not that I’m not trying, it’s that I do worse when I’m actually trying,” he says looking away. The blank look is gone replaced by what Baekhyun can only describe as mild frustration.

“You need to build up the muscles and reflexes. Doing correctly but slowly is better than badly or half assed.”

Baekhyun winces when most of the class decides to point out he said a bad word but he smiles good naturedly and apologizes. He sets the kids up to practice a new technique they learned last week and decides Sehun needs his own special routine for the time being until he catches up with the kids. He’ll have to come up with it later. For now makes Sehun do stretches that will help his balance and posture since the guy seems to be perpetually slouched with his shoulders curved inward.

“Alright, class. Good job. I want you all to practice your break fall. Until next time.”

The class bows and heads excitedly to the locker rooms to change and meet their parents. Sehun trails along behind and Baekhyun feels he should say something since he did sort of lose his temper on the man.

“Sehun. Can I talk to you for a second?”

“Are you gonna tear me apart again because I really don’t need another lecture,” Sehun sasses back.

Baekhyun’s smile turns a bit more fake but Sehun stops in front of Baekhyun.

“I just wanted to say I’m sorry for losing my temper. I want you to practice those stretches as well as trying to maintain a better posture throughout your day to day life,” Baekhyun replies. His hands automatically reach out to correct the slouch he’s already fallen into. Looking up at him like Baekhyun realizes he’s not quite as slender as he thought. He has a lot of well defined muscles just not in the right places. Baekhyun’s hands smooth across broad shoulders before pulling them back again.

Sehun gives a slight smirk that drives Baekhyun just slightly crazy, “Maybe.”

Leaving Baekhyun there speechless, he walks into the locker room to change and leave for wherever he may be going.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here's Baek's first chapter. I hope you liked it. I enjoy have sub plots. I'm moving most of my fics here from AFF because I'm starting to get away from there. And my other long Exo fic is like this.


	7. Chapter Seven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lots of cute Baeksoo friendship in this one. Enjoy~

Kyungsoo is struggling to focus yet again and he knows he’s been caught. He’s almost missed several of his cues on air. There’s no way Baekhyun and probably even Junmyeon haven’t noticed. Kyungsoo licks his lips nervously. He can’t seem to stop thinking about the day he spent with Chanyeol, and the few ensuing interactions since then, a week ago now and he really needs to clear his head. It’s becoming too much of a problem.

Thankfully Baekhyun wraps up the show and Kyungsoo is able to easily go along with the usual tag lines they spew about being back tomorrow and what’s happening later in the week. Kyungsoo pulls his headphones off his head debating between making a run for it or just sucking it up and coming clean to Baekhyun because he’ll have to do it eventually anyway.

In the end he figures talking to Baekhyun will at least help him clear his head. Baekhyun is his best friend and honestly for the first time in his life Kyungsoo finds he wants to talk about it.

Baekhyun has packed up and is standing in front of Kyungsoo staring at him while Kyungsoo sat and thought about it. He startles Kyungsoo by lightly kicking at the side of his foot.

“I was assuming I’d have to chase you down, but wow, something must really be happening,” Baekhyun comments his voice sounds a little tight but Kyungsoo ignores it.

“You’re buying me lunch,” Kyungsoo says. He stands up and walks out of the booth.

“Hey, if you’re the one who wants to talk why am I buying you lunch,” Baekhyun protests half heartedly and follows Kyungsoo out.

“Because.”

Baekhyun doesn’t argue after that and Kyungsoo assumes it’s because Baekhyun is worried. He knows he’s never really acted like this before, even when he was dating back in college, aside from one guy who ended up breaking Kyungsoo’s heart. Baekhyun almost beat the guy up afterwards. 

Kyungsoo stops abruptly in the hallway and turns around to face Baekhyun. Baekhyun’s lips are pulled tight in a line and worry creases his forehead in a way Kyungsoo hadn’t been able to see in the low lighting of the radio booth.

“Baek, it’s different than…”

Baekhyun nods and his face relaxes a little bit but he still seems to be pulled taught. Kyungsoo hadn’t realized he’d made Baekhyun worry this much. The older seems carefree and boy crazy but he’s a good friend. Kyungsoo knows this. He tries to say something to help ease the lines more but knows the only thing would be giving Baekhyun all the details and this isn’t the place to do that so he turns back around and continues walking.

Baekhyun falls into step beside Kyungsoo once they’re out of their building as they walk to their usual lunch place down the street. It’s hard to find and small, with good food so it’s not usually packed around lunch and it generally stays quiet so it’s easy to talk unlike the majority of places to eat in the center of Chicago.

They don’t really talk as they go through ordering and getting their food and they find a secluded table in a corner before Baekhyun openly glares at him while Kyungsoo arranges his food to start eating. Kyungsoo sighs and figures it’s better to just start talking. Kyungsoo clears his throat.

“Come on, out with it. I’ve been patient. It’s been a week,” Baekhyun states exasperation dripping from every word. 

Kyungsoo stares wide eyed, “You noticed right away?”

“Kyungsoo, I love you, but you are about as subtle as the wolf pretending to be red riding hood’s grandma.”

“Shut up,” Kyungsoo replies. He shakes his head and takes a bite of his sandwich chewing slowly and swallowing just to torture Baekhyun for being a brat.

“I’ve just. You know my neighbor Chanyeol.”

Baekhyun nods, “Yes what of him? Have you two had super hot sex yet or what?”

Kyungsoo snorts, trust Baekhyun to straight to that. Kyungsoo shakes his head.

“No we’ve just...been hanging out a lot…?”

Baekhyun stares at him, “What do you mean a lot?”

“Well you know that day last week when you got that like 20 year old in hapkido class,” Kyungsoo asks. Baekhyun hums in response so Kyungsoo continues, “We spent most of that afternoon together. He kind of invited himself into my apartment.”

“He wasn’t murdered on the spot? Color me impressed. What else?”

“What do you mean what else?”

“You said you’ve been hanging out a lot. What else happened?”

“Uh, well. He kind of texts me every day now. He knocks on my door a lot. Though the day I mentioned was the only time it was for more than like half an hour.”

“Get it, Kyungsoo.”

“Not like that,” Kyungsoo responds voice sharper than he meant, “just like asking questions. Where’s a good grocery store or when’s the best time to take the EL. Good restaurants in the area. Things like that.”

“Ah,” Baekhyun says finally understanding what has Kyungsoo so off kilter, “You want it to be like that.”

Kyungsoo flushes. It’s been a long time since he’s shown interest in a guy, or girl for that matter, so it shouldn’t be a big deal but for some reason it is. He hates that he feels embarrassed but he powers through. 

“I, I don’t know. Maybe.”

“Soo, you need to just ask him out.”

“No way. I don’t even know if he likes guys. Or maybe he’s dating his roommate. I don’t know. But no. I barely even know him.”

Kyungsoo can feel slight panic rising in his throat from just the thought of it. There’s no way he could possibly ask Chanyeol out. Not on a date at least. But maybe he could take the initiative to hang out more. Even that seems like too much. This is why he doesn’t do people.

“Dating is how you get to know someone, suck it up. If only so you can get your head out of the clouds. You’re barely able to bring your focus together for the show. Junmyeon asked me if you were alright, by the way.”

“What?”

“I told you, dude, you’re transparent.”

Kyungsoo sips idly on his pop thinking some more. Talking to Baekhyun has definitely helped. Even if it’s just so he’s not playing the same moments over and over in his head. And unfortunately he has a point but it’s a point, Kyungsoo decides, he can’t really do anything about. 

“Either way, Soo,” Baekhyun says, “You need to figure it out. You can’t be losing your focus all the time. Plus, I was…” 

Kyungsoo looks up to see the crinkle in his friends forehead again and Kyungsoo’s resolve softens a little. Baekhyun could be a pain in the ass but he is his best friend.

“Yea. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. I was just worried. So was Junmyeon.”

Kyungsoo nods, “Thanks…for everything.”

Baekhyun smiles, “Now that we’re done with your problem. Can we please talk about that brat Sehun?”

Kyungsoo forces himself to focus on Baekhyun’s issue with the new guy in his class. It’s fun listening to the stories of how the guy is being a complete nuisance to Baekhyun. It’s about time someone serve Baekhyun some of his own medicine. 

On his walk home Kyungsoo thinks more about his issue with Chanyeol. He can’t believe he didn’t realize he wanted to date him until baekhyun pointed it out. He could be so clueless sometimes. At least now he can stop worrying over why he’s thinking of the other man so much and find a solution to stop thinking about it.

Kyungsoo heads straight home after his lunch with Baekhyun. He barely even toes off his shoes before he’s sitting at his desk opening Logic Pro on his mac. His last remix is there unfinished now for several months. That’s the one thing he misses about being a night DJ. He loved making remixes. Finding songs that don’t normally mesh and figuring out how to interweave them seamlessly into a new amazing song. He pulls his headphones over his ears and loses himself in it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright. I hope you liked it. Comments are a writer's best friend!


	8. Chapter Eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note, there is smut in this chapter~

Kyungsoo’s resolve to try and get over Chanyeol withers with each passing day. Chanyeol keeps showing up at Kyungsoo’s door pleading boredom and asking to hang out. Eventually Kyungsoo stops asking why he’s there and instead just opens his door wider to let in his lanky form. They end up hanging out almost every day for a week. 

He learns so much about Chanyeol in such a short time. Kyungsoo learns he loves strumming absolutely nothing on his guitar when he’s moody. He learns Chanyeol’s family moved to Korea when he was a toddler and he had a hard time learning English when he finally went to kindergarten. He learns that he can sit in silence playing on his phone but he just doesn’t like being alone for lengthy periods of time. He learns all these interesting facts and it makes it harder to get the man off his mind and in the end he ends up making more mixes in that week than he has in several months just as a distraction. 

He wakes up Saturday morning to Baekhyun’s obnoxious ring tone right next to his face. Kyungsoo stayed up late last night working on an intense remix. He looks at his watch and it reads 9am, much later than when he normally gets up but now it seems to early. 

“What the fuck do you want,” he groans.

“Wow, aren’t we chipper.”

“Baek, I’m going to murder you.”

“Fine, fine. Do you have plans today? Want to go to the club with me?”

“I’m not sure why you’re even bothering to ask me.”

“Because you told me you need to get your mind off your neighbor. Figured it was worth a shot,” he questions.

“You figured wrong. Thanks for waking me up.”

“Whatever. You’re usually up. Let me know how it goes with lover boy today.”

Kyungsoo rolls his eyes and hangs up not bothering to say goodbye. 

He rolls over in bed and that’s when the doorbell sounds through his apartment. He groans again. Of course Chanyeol would come over when he hasn’t showered or gotten dressed. The doorbell rings and Kyungsoo reluctantly gets out of bed to open it. Swiping his fingers through his unruly hair in the process to try and tame it.

When he opens the door, Chanyeol’s finger directly in front of Kyungsoo’s face and Chanyeol just barely stops himself from poking Kyungsoo directly in the forehead. Chanyeol’s eyes are wide and his mouth parts slightly and he licks his lips and nope Kyungsoo is definitely not staring. He pointedly looks away.

“Uh, I just woke up. Can your boredom wait,” Kyungsoo mumbles as a greeting.

Kyungsoo glances at Chanyeol but he’s looking down and scratching the back of his head.

“Normally I’d say yes, but I locked myself out and Jongdae won’t be home for several hours. I just need a place to chill until he comes home.”

Kyungsoo would roll his eyes if he wasn’t feeling vulnerable from his sleep addled mind and Chanyeol wasn’t so cute. Kyungsoo shrugs and steps away from the door. Ambling over to the couch to curl up in a throw blanket and try to wake up. He’s cursing himself for completely fucking over his sleeping schedule when he hears Chanyeol giggle.

“Something funny, Mr Park,” Kyungsoo says. Chanyeol giggles again and then he hears the distinct sound of a camera phone snapping a picture. Kyungsoo lifts his head opening his eyes to look at Chanyeol.

“Did you just take a picture of me?”

Chanyeol nods, “Can I keep it?”

“Why would you want a picture of me after just waking up,” Kyungsoo asks laying his head back down.

“Because you’re cute and it needs to be preserved since you’re a little...intense when fully awake.”

Kyungsoo scoffs but doesn’t say anything. He’s not sure his voice wouldn’t betray the warmth spreading through his chest at the compliment or the heat that rose to his cheeks. 

“So?”

“So what?”

“Can I keep the picture?”

Kyungsoo sighs, “Sure.”

“Awesome. Do you want me to make you some coffee or something? To make up for waking you?”

Kyungsoo gives a light laugh, “Luckily for you, it was my asshole best friend who actually has the honor of waking me.”

Chanyeol cackles, “I don’t think I’ve ever heard your swear before. Or mention a best friend.”

Kyungsoo shrugs, “He’s been my friend since college, he’s also my co-host on the radio.”

“Oh, Baekhyun?”

“You’ve listened to our show? I figured it was on too early for you to catch,” Kyungsoo teases. 

“It’s on until 10am. I’m usually up by 8:30, thank you very much.”

Kyungsoo smiles softly, surprisingly at ease with the guy he’s majorly crushing on in his apartment. Chanyeol stops talking and Kyungsoo drifts asleep again until he hears that damn camera sound again. His eyes snap open to see Chanyeol’s phone in his face. Kyungsoo blinks sleepily at Chanyeol and suddenly he’s enfolded in a hug.

“Chanyeol?”

“Hmm?”

“What are you doing exactly?”

“You’re too cute, I had to hug you.”

“Shut your face.”

Kyungsoo wiggles trying to break out of the hug but it only succeeds in making Chanyeol squeeze him tighter and push his face into Kyungsoo’s neck and Kyungsoo freezes. Kyungsoo can feel Chanyeol’s smile against the soft skin of his neck and his eyelashes flutter. Warmth pools in his stomach and he’s painfully aware of how long it’s been since he’d had any intimacy or sex.

“Ah, Chanyeol,” Kyungsoo says, absolutely frozen in place from slight panic.

“Kyungsoo,” Chanyeol breathes against his neck, “You’re so cute. Do you know what you do to me?”

The hot breath sends a shiver of arousal down his neck. He’s struggling to not pull Chanyeol closer but that’d require being able to move his arms and he’s currently trapped.

“Say something,” Chanyeol asks pulling away slightly to look down at Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo immediately misses the older man’s warmth. He’s not sure how but suddenly he’s surging upward drawing Chanyeol into a fervent kiss. Chanyeol responds almost immediately pressing back against Kyungsoo’s plush lips.

Just as suddenly Kyungsoo is pulling away, stunned at himself. He looks up at Chanyeol who’s looking like a kicked puppy because Kyungsoo stopped and then Kyungsoo is thinking fuck it. He pulls his arms out of his blanket cocoon to wrap them around Chanyeol’s neck pulling him onto the couch and kissing him again. 

This time the kiss is more intense. Kyungsoo opens his mouth almost insistently and Chanyeol’s tongue is there exploring every bit. Kyungsoo should have known Chanyeol would be a toucher. His large hands are all over. First twisting in his hair, then dripping down his neck to pull the blanket away and toss it to the floor. Kyungsoo whines at the sudden cold but then Chanyeol is pulling Kyungsoo closer covering Kyungsoo with his own body. Chanyeol subtly moves them down the couch so they’re both laying down on it instead of awkwardly sitting next to each other.

Kyungsoo is acutely aware of when Chanyeol finds his boner from the way the friction of Chanyeol’s thigh pressing on it make Kyungsoo moan and the way Kyungsoo is kissing the spreading smile on Chanyeol’s face. Chanyeol kisses down Kyungsoo’s neck and then back up to his ear.

“I can help you with that,” he says. His voice is rough and Kyungsoo can feel his dick twitch from it and the way his breath ghosts across his ear. Chanyeol’s thigh grinds down against Kyungsoo’s crotch again and Kyungsoo almost whimpers.

“Well,” Chanyeol asks nuzzling against his ear and Kyungsoo is gone. 

“Please?”

Chanyeol smiles into his neck again and places a sloppy kiss there before attacking Kyungsoo’s already kiss swollen lips. Kyungsoo almost whines but even when completely lost to lust he can’t bring himself to do that. So he waits patiently to see what Chanyeol intends to do. It takes a few minutes but eventually Chanyeol stands up and pulls off his pants and boxers before pulling down Kyungsoo’s own sweatpants and boxers and laying on top of him again.

Chanyeol places a chaste kiss to Kyungsoo’s lips and then pulls away again to look at Kyungsoo’s face.

“This okay?”

Kyungsoo nods and Chanyeol continues. He kisses Kyungsoo again and then aligns their cocks. He licks his palm and grasps both in his hand. Kyungsoo gasps from the direct contact. Chanyeol sets a slow, leisurely place tugging at both dicks with one large hand. Bending to kiss Kyungsoo here and there.

Kyungsoo gets impatient with Chanyeol’s pace and places his hand on top of Chanyeol’s forcing him to go faster. Chanyeol laughs and places a soft kiss to Kyungsoo’s cheek and obeys Kyungsoo’s pace increase. Kyungsoo can tell he’s close. He can feel the orgasm building low in his stomach when Chanyeol comes over his stomach. 

Kyungsoo deflates for a second when Chanyeol’s hand briefly stops but Chanyeol rides out his orgasm and then he grips Kyungsoo’s dick alone. Chanyeol’s pace is fast and steady and it pushes Kyungsoo over the edge with just a few more tugs. Chanyeol kisses Kyungsoo hard as he comes and then he pulls away and flops on Kyungsoo’s chest both breathing hard. 

They lay like that breathing hard and sweating until Kyungsoo realizes what just happened and is suddenly very grossed out by the come drying on his stomach where his shirt bunched up. Chanyeol props himself up on his arms and looks down at Kyungsoo a sleepy smile spread across his face. He kisses Kyungsoo and stands up. 

“Where are your wash clothes?”

“Closet in the bathroom.”

Chanyeol nods and heads to the bathroom. Kyungsoo can hear the water running and then Chanyeol reappears wash cloth in hand and he’s cleaning Kyungsoo up. Kyungsoo goes to stand but Chanyeol doesn’t let him.

“I need to change my shirt, Chanyeol”

“Just take it off and cuddle with me?”

Kyungsoo rolls his eyes. They should talk about what just happened but instead Kyungsoo tosses his shirt off and gets an dazzling smile from Chanyeol before Chanyeol becomes his blanket again and then they’re both drifting to sleep.


	9. Chapter Nine

Kyungsoo wakes up to the sunlight streaming through his window, the late morning sun hitting him fully in the face. He blinks awake and the events of the morning slowly comeback. He looks around but Chanyeol seems to have left the apartment. Kyungsoo tries not to feel disappointed but he can’t say that he isn’t. 

He searches around for his phone and eventually finds it on the floor almost underneath the couch. The knot that had started forming in his chest disappears when he sees a text from Chanyeol saying he had to leave for work. Kyungsoo audibly sighs and spends the rest of the day alternating between working on stuff for the show and making mixes. He has so many new ones he could probably do an entire set at his favorite club without using something old. 

The next day he’s snapped out of sleep by someone banging on his door. There’s only one person he knows that prefers not to use the doorbell so he gets up and swings the door open already cursing.

“Baekhyun, I swear to fucking god, why do you insist on waking me up?”

“You, me, breakfast now.”

“What the fuck?”

“Just get dressed. I need to rant,” Baekhyun says and then takes a good look at Kyungsoo, “And oh my god, you need to tell me what happened yesterday because you look more relaxed than I’ve seen you in years. Someone got laid.”

Kyungsoo throws the closest thing he can reach, a stiff pillow from his couch, at Baekhyun’s smirk before disappearing into his room to get dressed. He pulls on a black sweater, dark jeans, and a black hat to look at least presentable. He barely remembers to grab his wallet. It’s 7am and he’s never been so disoriented in his life. Of course Baekhyun had to wake him from the best sleep he’s gotten in ages.

“Do you realize how much I hate you right now,” Kyungsoo mumbles, grabbing his jacket off his kitchen chair before walking up to Baekhyun who’s casually leaning against his couch on his phone. 

“You say that to all your friends. Come on, I’m dying to know how it happened but I also need food like now.”

Kyungsoo follows Baekhyun out and into the older’s car.

“Wow, special treatment. Why the car?”

“I just wasn’t feeling public transport today, ya know.”

Kyungsoo nods as Baekhyun pulls onto the road and fiddles with the radio until he finds the Sirius radio station that plays all the Korean ballads. Kyungsoo remembers the one road trip Baekhyun had managed to convince Kyungsoo to go on with him. It was terrible due to lack of planning almost from start to finish but singing cheesy Korean ballads together at 2am while trying to find a hotel will always be one his favorite memories. Kyungsoo smiles and looks out the window as Baekhyun hums along to Park Hyo Shin’s latest single. It takes them nearly an hour to get to Baekhyun’s favorite diner that’s just outside Chicago.

“Sick of the city, huh,” Kyungsoo asks as they walk into the diner.

Baekhyun gives Kyungsoo a small smile while they wait to be seated, “That obvious, huh? I love the city and all it has to offer but sometimes I just miss the suburbs and not constantly being surrounded by people and tall buildings.”

“Just two,” the waitress asks. Baekhyun nods and they follow in silence as she leads them to the booth. 

They make small talk about the weather and work as they peruse the menu but one they order Kyungsoo is looking anywhere but at Baekhyun. He can feel his friend’s eyes boring into him as he looks out the window.

“Come on Kyungsoo, spill it. When, where, HOW? I need to know.” Kyungsoo doesn’t say anything so Baekhyun smirks, “What exactly happened?”

Kyungsoo can feel the blood rush to his cheeks as his morning with Chanyeol flits across his mind. Baekhyun’s smirk grows wider like he’s watching his prey fall into a trap. Baekhyun rips open an absurd amount of sugar and pours it into his coffee and then gingerly takes a sip all while staring at Kyungsoo. 

Kyungsoo cracks. Baekhyun knows just what to do to get him to talk. It’s both infuriating and nice.

“He came over yesterday right after you called me.”

“And,” Baekhyun prompts.

Kyungsoo blushes harder and looks away, “He was locked out his apartment so he asked to just hang out-”

“That is the worst line ever. Oh my god, you fell for that?”

“Shut up, asshole, or I’m not telling you anything else,” Kyungsoo glares and Baekhyun mimes zipping his lips and throwing away the key.

Kyungsoo tells him the rest of what happened with only a few more interruptions from Baekhyun and eventually their food. They go quiet as they eat.

“So he just left and sent you a text?”

Kyungsoo nods pushing his eggs around his plate, “Yea. Is that bad?”

“I don’t know.”

“Baek, you’re like the king of dating and one night stands.”

“How was the sex?”

“It was...it was great. I don’t think I’ve had that much chemistry with someone in a long time.”

Baekhyun nods, “I don’t know. You’ll have to wait and see. I still think you should ask him out. On a real date.”

“Baek,” Kyungsoo chides.

“Look I know it’s difficult for you but sex does not mean you’re in a relationship.”

Kyungsoo shakes his head, “I know. Can we stop talking about this now?”

Baekhyun opens his mouth to say something Kyungsoo knows he’ll want to punch the other for so he cuts him off, “I thought you said you wanted to rant?”

“You’re right. Yea. So Sehun-”

“That adult in your kid class,” Kyungsoo asks, smiling because the quickest way to change the subject with Baekhyun has always been to direct the conversation to Baekhyun himself.

“Yea, him. Anyway, I don’t know how he simultaneously gets better and worse at hapkido but he does. One week he’ll have a technique down pat, and the next he’ll be half assing or slouching through it and I’ll have to go over and correct it. I swear he’s doing it on purpose just to make me angry.”

“He sounds like those boys in elementary school who pick on girls they like.”

“Excuse you, that brat does not like me. He likes making me angry.”

“Sehun and Baekhyun sitting in a tree, K, I, S-”

“Kyungsoo so help me god, shut up or I’m going to track Chanyeol down and tell him you like him,” Baekhyun promises.

Kyungsoo starts laughing, loud and boisterous and then Baekhyun is cracking up and half the diner is looking at them like their crazy. They eventually settle down and Baekhyun shakes his head.

“You’re lucky you’re my friend or that shit would not fly,” Baekhyun teases.

“Oh please, like you haven’t sung that song at me for just looking at someone.”

“Because it’s obvious when you’re looking and when you’re _looking_.”

“I am not that obvious.”

“I’m afraid so. Don’t worry, it’s endearing.”

“Shut up.”

“You love me.”

“Yea, yea. Still, shut up.”

Baekhyun laughs and they continue their breakfast. Kyungsoo lives for moments like these, he thinks. Where he can just be himself with his best friend and have fun. Kyungsoo spends the rest of the day with Baekhyun shopping and walking around and generally not being in Chicago. It’s nice and forces Kyungsoo to wonder why he makes such a big deal of Baekhyun dragging him out of his apartment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo! more adorable Baeksoo friendship. Platonic relationships ftw. So I just finished planning the outline for this and we've still got like 24ish more chapters to go. I hope you're in for the long haul. Anyway, as always, thoughts, comments, concerns?


	10. Chapter Ten

Kyungsoo gets home from his day with Baekhyun to find a post it note from Chanyeol stuck to his door. Kyungsoo can’t help the smile that instantly crosses his face as he reads the precise handwriting. 

 

‘Kyungsoo,  
Lost my phone. I stopped by but I assume you aren’t home. Hope you had a great day!  
-Chanyeol'

 

His name is followed by multiple smiley faces that makes Kyungsoo simultaneously smile wider and roll his eyes. He opens his door and hangs the note below his computer monitor. 

The week slips by for Kyungsoo with no visits from Chanyeol and an increasingly grumpy mood as each day passes. He doesn’t even get any more post it notes on his door. 

Baekhyun pokes Kyungsoo’s side as they leave work on Friday, “What’s got your panties in a twist this week? I thought it was my turn to be grumpy now that you and lover boy got it on.”

Baekhyun is slouching and carrying his messenger bag in the most inefficient way possible, Kyungsoo thinks, by slinging it awkwardly over his shoulder by the short handle twisting his wrist in an odd way as they walk out of the building. Kyungsoo glares at Baekhyun and says, “I haven’t seen him.”

“Wait, what? Have you talked? He texted you right,” Baekhyun questions standing straighter and letting his arm drop. Kyungsoo doesn’t say anything and opts, instead, to ignore Baekhyun and continue walking to the El. Baekhyun jogs a little ahead of Kyungsoo and stops directly in front of him effectively forcing Kyungsoo to stop and look at him.

“Come on, what happened?”

“I-” Kyungsoo starts but stops to take a deep breath. He sighs and then tries again, “he texted me almost immediately after but when I got back to my place Sunday there was a post it on my door saying he stopped by but I wasn’t there and that he lost his phone. But nothing since.”

“Oh…”

“Yea,” Kyungsoo says looking deliberately up at a building to avoid Baekhyun’s searching eyes. 

“Maybe he just missed you.”

“Baekhyun aside from work, I’ve been at my apartment. That’s a pretty big window to completely miss.”

“Well, maybe he’s just been busy. You said he works evenings or nights or whatever.”

“I don’t know. Maybe,” Kyungsoo replies and starts walking. Baekhyun falls into step beside him.

“I’m sure it’s fine. Don’t worry about it. I mean, he took pictures of you while you were sleeping and he decided to be your friend even though you are definitely hard to get to know. I mean come on. Give him the benefit of the doubt,” he chides and bumps their shoulders together, a small smile playing at his lips.

“Asshole,” Kyungsoo mumbles but he returns the smile. 

“You give such affectionate nicknames,” Baekhyun teases. Kyungsoo shakes his head but his smile is bigger, more real and he loves Baekhyun for it. 

They head their separate ways at the station Baekhyun to the Purple Line and Kyungsoo on the Blue. Deciding not to be a hopeless idiot who pines and waits around his apartment just in case the guy he likes happens to stop by, Kyungsoo heads to his favorite vinyl shop. It means he has to abruptly get off the Blue Line and then find the closest Red line station but Kyungsoo has never really minded public transport.

When he opens the door to Audio Archeology, it’s like coming home for him. The smell of old cardboard and what is most likely pot assault his senses but the wall to wall rows of vinyls makes his heart happy. 

“Well look at this majestic motherfucker right here. What can we help you with,” a guy with long brown hair and arguably a porn mustache says, startling Kyungsoo from the bee-line he was about to make towards the vintage audio equipment set up at the back of the shop.

“Dude, I know it’s in your blood but please stop swearing,” a girl says from across the shop where she’s restocking some vinyl. To Kyungsoo she says, “Sorry about him. Can we help you find anything?”

“Ah, no. I’m just browsing. Thanks,” Kyungsoo says continuing on his path to the back. He always tortures himself with the vintage equipment even though he doesn’t have anywhere to put it. He stops dead in his tracks, forcing the guy with the long hair to collide into him, when he sees the 70s dual turntable with built in mixer. He can feel his mouth salavating and for the first time in pretty much ever he finds himself wishing he had a bigger apartment.

“She’s a beaut, isn’t she? Complete working condition,” the guy says and walks over to it opening the clear, plastic lid that protects it, “almost everything is original, though Larissa had to make a few of the knobs for the mixer.”

“It’s gorgeous,” Kyungsoo breathes, “She did a gorgeous job, the knobs look original.”

“It’s a steal at only $400,” the guy says and Kyungsoo almost says yes but his cramped apartment comes to mind and he shakes his head.

“I don’t have room for it,” he sighs. The guy just nods and continues about his business dusting the turntables in the back.

Kyungsoo browses for a couple hours, carefully going through several rows of vinyl and buying almost 20 records. He takes one wistful glance at the turntable wishing he didn’t have to settle for the USB hookup turntable he bought off Amazon to mix his vinyls. One day, he thinks and leaves the store. 

He grabs dinner at a nearby pub, sitting a booth to the side nursing a drink and watching half heartedly whatever sport was playing right now, he’s pretty sure it’s hockey but the TVs aren’t very close to his booth so he’s not sure. He decides to just head home tired and excited to play with his new vinyls.

He humming to himself as he walks up his stairs searching for the key to his door so he doesn’t notice the heavy breaths coming from his floor until he looks up and sees Chanyeol pressed against the door by a girl who’s almost as tall as Chanyeol himself with long blonde hair kissing down Chanyeol’s neck. 

Chanyeol flips the girl around so she’s pressed to the door and begins kissing her fully on the lips while he tries to push his key into the lock to open his door. Kyungsoo is frozen at the top of the steps trying to look away but completely unable. Chanyeol finally managing to open his door and clumsily falling into his apartment with her closing the door behind them finally snaps Kyungsoo out of it. 

Kyungsoo skips over sad completely and lands on furious. He’s shaking and getting his key into the door takes a lot of effort but he manages it. He gently drops his vinyl’s by the desk, mindful of how fragile they are, before whipping his coat off and tearing through the pockets to find his phone. It takes him a lot longer than it should have in his cloud of anger but then he’s dialling Baekhyun and holding the phone up to his ear.

It rings and rings but Baekhyun doesn’t answer. Kyungsoo curses. He needs to get out of his apartment. Away from his living room with the memories of what him and Chanyeol did in it not even a week ago. He doesn’t even bother with his coat this time. His anger will keep him warm, he thinks melodramatically, before grabbing the USB of his recent mixes off his desk shoving that and his phone in his pocket and leaving again. 

This time he heads to Loophole. It’s a relatively small nightclub that lets Kyungsoo DJ here and there. Kyungsoo hopes the DJ on tonight won’t care because the energy his anger has made needs to be released somewhere and he’s not sure it will be good if it’s unleashed elsewhere.

He gets to the club, it’s only about 8pm so there aren’t a lot of people around. It sounds like regular Top 40 music is playing through the speakers and when he looks no one is in the DJ booth. He goes up to the bar to see Yixing in a panic on the phone. Kyungsoo thinks it might just be his lucky night.

“Yixing?”

“Not right now,” He says not glancing up as he furiously dials a number and puts the phone to his ear. While it’s ringing he taps his fingers on the neon blue bar, cursing at his phone when someone obviously doesn’t pick up and then biting his finger as he scrolls through his contacts.

“Yixing?”

“What,” he snaps glancing up in irritation. The older man’s face changes from annoyance to hope in the blink of an eye, “Kyungsoo, are you here to save my life?”

“That depends…”

“On?”

“What does your life need saving from?”

At this point Kyungsoo is pretty sure but he doesn’t like assuming things.

“My DJ for the night hasn’t shown up and hasn’t called. He was supposed to start half an hour ago. I really need a DJ. Friday nights are usually our best nights,” he responds, “Please tell me you’re here to ask if you can DJ and not to get drunk. Because I really need that at the moment.”

Kyungsoo smiles and nods, glad his anger will help someone out at least.

“Oh thank god. Go on up to the booth and just work your magic.”

“Thanks. Think you could have some regularly bring up water and a gin tonic?”

Yixing gives him a weird look but doesn’t say anything and nods in affirmation. Kyungsoo taps on the counter and gives Yixing a smile that’s all lips in thanks before heading up to the booth to lose himself in the music.

It’s several hours later when Kyungsoo is a sweaty mess riding the line between buzzed and completely wasted that Baekhyun finds him. The look Baekhyun gives him is what finally turns the anger into complete defeat and sadness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two updates in two days. It's crazy, right?? :D I've been averaging about one chapter a week so this makes me really happy. I'm on a roll. It's also nice because I know exactly what's happening in each chapter. Anyway, comments are a writer's best friend. ;)


	11. Chapter Eleven

They don’t talk. Baekhyun enfolds Kyungsoo in a hug that turns into shuffling him out of the club and into a taxi. Baekhyun keeps his arm protectively around his shoulders the whole time. Even as they get into the elevator of Baekhyun’s apartment building. He eventually lets go when Kyungsoo is settled on the couch. 

Kyungsoo can’t remember the ride but he knows it happened. His mind is blissfully blank until Baekhyun shoves a cup of hot tea into his hands and sits down on the couch next to him with his own. He turns pulling his knees to his chest and looking at Kyungsoo. 

He’d rather sleep for 1000 years than talk about this right now but he know he has to. He sighs curling into himself around his mug. 

“Come on,” Baekhyun says softly, “what happened? You were fine when we parted ways after work.”

Kyungsoo takes a few deep breaths before telling Baekhyun what happened between 11am that morning and now. Baekhyun reminds uncharacteristically quiet while Kyungsoo talks and Kyungsoo can’t even begin to tell Baekhyun how much he appreciates it. By the end he is openly crying and Baekhyun has set their mugs on his coffee table so he can wrap his arms around Kyungsoo. 

Pulling in a stuttering breath, Kyungsoo wipes his cheeks and eyes forcing Baekhyun to sit back with just his arm slung around Kyungsoo’s shoulders. He sighs.

“It’s a completely asshole thing he did and I’ll completely kick his ass…”

Kyungsoo looks up at him. “But,” he croaks, voice wrecked from talking and crying.

Baekhyun sighs again, “You weren’t in a relationship. Nothing was explicitly talked about. He’s a douche for using you and moving on without talking to you at all but you could have tried reaching out to him…”

Kyungsoo grimaces and makes a face. He knows he’s at fault too. That’s why he’s so angry and upset. He should have just knocked on Chanyeol’s door and talked no matter how far outside his comfort zone it was.

“This is why I don’t do people,” Kyungsoo mumbles. 

“I know. Sleep here tonight, tomorrow we’ll wallow it up right. We’ll watch a bunch of shitty rom-coms and eat all the ice cream I can scrounge up from the 7-Eleven.”

Kyungsoo sniffs pitifully and nods. Baekhyun hands him his usual pillow and blanket. He didn’t realize how much his eyes and head hurt from crying but laying down and closing them brings him sweet relief and he passes out before he can give much more thought to the events of the day.

He wakes up to hear Baekhyun’s muffled singing coming from the kitchen. It takes him five minutes but eventually he drags himself off the couch and walks around the weird wall that separates the kitchen from the living room. 

“You’re...cooking,” he questions, incredulity dripping from the words.

“Don’t say that like it’s such a bad thing,” Baekhyun glares as he tries to flip the pancake in the pan. It flops hopelessly and splatters the wet batter from the center of the pancake across the stove top.

“Will it even be edible?”

“Hey, don’t be an ass. I’m trying to do something nice.”

Kyungsoo tiredly pushes Baekhyun away from the stove. He mixes a bit more of the pancake mix into the watery batter Baekhyun made to thicken it up and quickly makes fluffy stack of pancakes. Baekhyun pouts and makes the microwave bacon he was able to buy on his early morning trip to the grocery store for provisions for the day. 

“I could have done that,” states pushing his lower lip out, voice quiet.

Kyungsoo rolls his eyes but sets the pancakes on the kitchen table before grabbing the rest of what they’ll need to eat breakfast and making himself a cup of coffee.

“I could have. You should have just told me the batter needed more mix,” he protests. 

“Stop pouting and eat your pancakes, you five year old.”

Baekhyun grumbles but sits down to eat. When Kyungsoo sits down he says, “So I got all the must have rom coms, Ugly Truth, Leap Year, 2005 Pride and Prejudice, Pretty Woman, 10 Things I hate About You. Where do you want to start? Oh also, I got at least 5 different kinds of ice cream and sprinkles.”

“Baek breathe,” Kyungsoo mutters shoving pancake in his mouth. Baekhyun glares at him again but stops talking and continues eating.

“Can I take a shower and borrow some clothes? I feel gross. Then we should start with Leap Year,” Kyungsoo replies.

Baekhyun smiles, “Of course.”

A good shower, fresh clothes and several layers of blankets later, Baekhyun and Kyungsoo are settled on the couch. They make it through Leap Year and Pride and Prejudice before getting out the ice cream.

Baekhyun hands Kyungsoo the carton of Rocky Road and sits back down in his spot flouncing around in it to get comfortable again. Kyungsoo sighs and Baekhyun stops to look at him.

“You’re right. I really didn’t make it known that it was going to be more,” he says quietly.

“Yea. Well, hindsight is always 20/20,” Baekhyun replies.

“But Baek, I just...We literally saw each other and hung everyday for over a week. I stopped asking him why he was over and just opened the door. I fell asleep on my couch with him in my apartment.”

Baekhyun sighs sadly, “I know those are all a big deal to you, Soo, but to most people it just seems like you’re keeping him at arm’s length. That’s the problem with letting other people initiate everything.”

Kyungsoo nods. Objectively he knows this but that doesn’t make it any easier to handle. They stop talking then. Kyungsoo isn’t sure he could handle talking about it more. Nothing to do now but try and move on. They finish the movies and the ice cream and Kyungsoo heads home.

He walks up the stairs and hears giggling. His insides freeze up and when he reaches the top of the stairs Chanyeol is there again, giggling with a guy somehow taller than himself pressed against his back nibbling at his ear while Chanyeol tries to open his door.

Kyungsoo does better this time. He doesn’t freeze up. He goes to his door and is able to slide the key into the lock on the first try. He’s in his apartment before Chanyeol and his whatever even notice him. He takes a few deep breathes.

The next few weeks see Kyungsoo hovering between sadness and righteous anger. He catches Chanyeol with random people a few more times. One night it was both a guy and a girl crowding around him as he opened the door. It’s never the same person twice. It helps that Chanyeol seemingly sleeps with a different person every night, he tells himself though he doesn’t quite believe it. He figures he’ll get there eventually. He’s not sure how it happened but suddenly it’s mid-November and it’s been a month since what he is calling The Incident.

It’s mid Saturday afternoon when Baekhyun comes pounding on his door. Kyungsoo opens the door in tapered sweatpants and an oversized sweater.

“Alright, come on. You’re pathetic,” Baekhyun says and walks into Kyungsoo’s apartment. Kyungsoo sighs and closes the door.

“Thank you for the wonderful boost to my self-esteem.”

“You can’t lock yourself up in your apartment and mope. It’s time to move on.”

“Baek, this was what I did before,” Kyungsoo huffs.

“I know, and it wasn’t enough then and it’s not enough now. You were in a rut.”

“I was no-,” Kyungsoo starts but the look from Baekhyun stops him, “Fine but now I’m content.”

“You’re a terrible liar.”

“Shut up, asshole.”

“Oh how you love your pet names,” Baekhyun teases and then looks away from Kyungsoo, glancing around the apartment, “Seriously though, get dressed, something nice ish, and do that thing with your hair where you push it up at the front. We’re gonna hit the town.”

Kyungsoo doesn’t move, “You’re hiding something. What’s really going on here?”

“N-nothing. I need to rant about that brat Sehun some more. Did I tell you he looked straight at my face and pretended to fall and hurt his ankle. I had to half carry his lanky ass to the on site medic. And you need to get out of this apartment.”

“Baekhyun, I’m not doing anything till you tell me what’s really happening?”

“Fine,” he grumbles, “Jongin’s in town and I promised him a night out with you and I.”

“Baekhyun,” Kyungsoo groans.

“Come on, just give it the benefit of the doubt,” Baekhyun flinches when Kyungsoo’s face pinches tight at the words, “Right, bad wording. But it still stands. Give it a chance.”

Kyungsoo looks at Baekhyun’s hopeful face. It couldn’t hurt, right? So he nods and heads to his room. 

“Perfect! I’ll be out here.”

Sighing Kyungsoo nods again and closes his bedroom door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Three chapters in three days! It's a Thanksgiving miracle~ Anyway, enjoy! Thoughts, comments, concerns?


	12. Chapter Twelve

“Kyungsoo, come on, he’s been here for an hour. Stop dragging your feet,” Baekhyun whines from outside the cab. 

“Baek, I’m just not sure.”

“It’s clubbing, Soo, not a date,” Baekhyun says. Though maybe it could be, Baekhyun thinks to himself. He’ll just save that thought for later.

“Fine, fine. I’m coming.”

Kyungsoo finally steps out of the cab and Baekhyun latches onto his arm. The club Jongin is waiting at doesn’t seem to be the hot spot for the night and Baekhyun is simultaneously disappointed and glad.

Baekhyun drags Kyungsoo through the club to the booth Jongin in is sitting at and forcibly shoves Kyungsoo into the seat across from Jongin. 

“I’ll be right back, gotta use the bathroom,” he says smiling a bit too wide. He turns and heads into the small crowd on the dance floor. Baekhyun dances for a while keeping an eye on the table but when it seems clear Kyungsoo isn’t going to flee Baekhyun heads home so he can get some rest before his special Hapkido class with just Sehun. He goes to bed happy that night and excited for Kyungsoo.

The next day Baekhyun wakes up in a great mood. He’s sure not even Sehun’s shitty attitude can ruin it. The text messages he woke up to from Kyungsoo are definitely the icing on the cake.

KS: I hate you  
KS: Did you leave???  
KS: WTF you left!  
KS:...Gonna see Jongin again before he leaves. And I still hate you.

Baekhyun smiles and replies while walking to the kitchen to eat breakfast. 

BH: ;) Get it~  
KS: Why are we friends?

Baekhyun doesn’t deem that with a reply and instead gets ready to head to the hapkido studio. He throws on some loose grey sweatpants, a tshirt and sweater over it. He’s at the studio and dressed for practice before Sehun even bothers to show up so he decides to warm up and practice the more advanced moves. He doesn’t have a lot of time to work on his own practice as a teacher so he feels rusty. His muscles shake more than they should as he pushes through the intricate high kicks and arm movements. He lands with a dull thud at the end of a particularly intricate jump kick another thud comes from the other side of the room. 

Baekhyun whips around to find Sehun lying flat on his stomach with his legs wrapped up in each other. He scrambles to sit up, face flushed red and lips set in a grim line.

“Walk much,” Baekhyun teases.

Sehun quickly rises to hit feet and brushes himself off while muttering, “Shut up.” Sehun’s face is still red and he seems to be swallowing a lot. Baekhyun’s smile falls a little but he lets it slide.

“Are you ready? You seem sick.”

“I’m fine,” he mumbles, “Let’s just get this over with.”

Baekhyun frowns. Sehun usually teases back at the very least and now he’s barely rising to the action. Baekhyun sets his mouth and sinks into a sparring position. 

“Alright. Routine one. Spar with me.”

Sehun sinks into his own position and Baekhyun smiles again. Sehun moves to push through the first set of movements.

“Your posture is so much better. You’ve improved so much,” Baekhyun says smiling widing.

Sehun stops mid punch and blinks at him. Baekhyun tilts his head in a silent question. 

“What? Something wrong? Are you feeling sick?”

Sehun shakes his head, “Sorry.”

Baekhyun nods but watches Sehun closely. They make it through all of the first routine and half of the second before Sehun trips on his own feet again and lands on the floor. Baekhyun grabs the water bottles sitting by the side and hands one to Sehun before sitting down across from him. Sehun’s heavy breathing the only thing punctuating the silence.

“We’ll call it enough for today. I think we can stop these special practices you’re doing well.”

Sehun stares at the water bottle in his hands his his lips twitch slightly. He takes a sip of the water bottle but still doesn’t look at Baekhyun.

“What? Seriously, are you hurt or something,” Baekhyun says. He knows he treats Sehun like a nuisance but he’s kind of fond of him now.

“No. It’s just, can we continue the one on one for a while?”

“Uh, yea. I guess…”

Baekhyun’s puzzled but he isn’t going to turn it down. He gives one last look at Sehun before standing up.

“Let’s call it quits for today though, I need to do some practice of mine and you don’t seem to be 100% here,” Baekhyun says and instinctively ruffles Sehun’s hair. Sehun glances up at him and Baekhyun jerks his hand away. 

“So yea. See you in class tomorrow.”

Baekhyun almost runs to the other side of the small room in the studio to continue practicing his own more advanced techniques on a dummy since he doesn’t have a sparring partner. He flips the dummy a few times when he hears a small cough. Sehun is sitting closer than before legs out in front of him and leaning back on his arms while watching Baekhyun.

“Aren’t you leaving,” Baekhyun huffs flipping the dummy again.

“I don’t have anywhere to be,” he smirks. Ah, yes, Baekhyun thinks, Sehun is back. He wonders if he was just acting weird so he didn’t have to practice as long as usual.

“Well if you’re going to stick around let me practice on you.”

Sehun’s eyes widen as he looks at the dummy Baekhyun just jump kicked. He glances back at Baekhyun panic clear in his eyes and Baekhyun laughs out right. 

“I’m kidding. You’re not trained enough to be good for a sparring partner for me. Just don’t get any ideas about trying advanced techniques.”

Sehun nods and continues watching Baekhyun. Baekhyun tries but fails to not show off. He ends up running through one of his more flashy techniques and by the end Sehun is actually clapping. Baekhyun collapses on the ground a panting, sweaty mess. He definitely needs to practice more, he thinks. 

Sehun stands up and walks over to Baekhyun and looks down at him while Baekhyun tries to catch his breath.

“Nice job, teach, maybe you should practice more. You seemed a little shaky,” Sehun smirks and all of Baekhyun’s good feelings about the little asshole fade away.

“Oh my god, just leave already.”

“See ya tomorrow,” he says and walks away with the small wave of his hand. 

Baekhyun takes an angry shower. It takes all of his restraint to not mutter under his breath. He finally dries off and gets dressed before he just calls Kyungsoo. He needs to talk about it.

“What do you want,” Kyungsoo asks, his voice that tone that suggests he’s perpetually annoyed.

“Hate me later, I’m so angry I’m seeing red right now.”

“The one on one went that well, huh?”

“I thought we had a bonding moment. He was acting a little weird and not being as much of a little shit, right? And then out of nowhere he makes a snide remark about me being out of practice. ME!”

“Baek, you’ve said multiple times that you don’t practice like you should anymore.”

“Yea, but I don’t need a snarky asshole who can barely hold his posture to tell me that,” He seethes.

“Well, maybe he likes you.”

“What is this elementary school where the boy pulls on your hair to show he has a crush? He doesn’t like me. He takes joy in being a shithead.”

“Fine. But either way, just ignore him.”

“It’s like you don’t even know me.”

“You’re right. Just sass him back. It’s what you do.”

“Oh my god, you’re no help. Tell me how your night with Jongin was to distract me.”

“It was fine.”

“And?”

“And what? We chatted a bit. Drank a bit. Nothing happened.”

“You’re just as infuriating as him. Goodbye,” Baekhyun sighs and hangs up. 

“Why is everyone in my life out to get me,” Baekhyun whines dramatically before leaving the studio and continuing with his day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Sorry it's been so long between chapters. It's been a rough couple of weeks. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it~


	13. Chapter Thirteen

Jongin drums his hands on the table looking from Kyungsoo to the dance floor Baekhyun had slipped onto.

“So, how have you been,” Jongin asks puffing up his cheeks and blowing air out. 

“Good. And you,” Kyungsoo replies fidgeting and searching the dance floor for familiar, red hair.

“Can’t complain, can’t complain,” He says and taps out another rhythm on the table. Kyungsoo wonders if he’s incapable for sitting still but keeps the thought to himself. He’s still scanning the crowd for the little shit he happens to call his best friend.

“Still liking the radio DJ thing?”

Kyungsoo resists snorting, “Yea. It’s what I love the most.”

He’s stopped scanning the crowd by now. Kyungsoo can’t believe Baekhyun but he’s 110% sure he just up and left without even bothering to stay at the table until it wasn’t awkward, if it ever gets passed awkward, Kyungsoo thinks.

“I’m gonna get a refill,” Jongin says holding up his empty beer, “do you want something?”

“Any kind of cider is fine. I’m not sure what they have,” Kyungsoo replies. Jongin nods and gets up heading for the bar. Kyungsoo takes the opportunity to text Baekhyun a rapid succession of texts. He takes a deep breath. It’s not Jongin’s fault Baekhyun is a busy body so he figures he’ll try and put effort into talking with Jongin. 

It didn’t take any effort to get passed awkward with Chanyeol, a small part of his brain provides, but Kyungsoo quickly pushes the thought from his mind. He’s definitely not still thinking about Chanyeol. Not at all. He just barely manages to not roll his eyes at himself. 

Jongin comes back to the table with whatever beer he’s been drinking and an Angry Orchard hard apple cider for Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo smiles at Jongin and thanks him.

“This is a little weird, isn’t it,” Jongin laughs rolling the beer bottle between his hands. 

“A little.”

“Baek just knows I’ve kind of had a thing for you since we first met,” Jongin admits letting the beer go and instead fidgeting with the small menu of food offered from the bar.

“Really…?”

Jongin nods glancing up at Kyungsoo and giving him a small, shy smile, “Who wouldn’t have a crush on a sweet, quiet guy who passionately loves music?”

Kyungsoo’s not sure he’d describe himself as sweet but he goes with it. He’s giving this a try he thinks. For himself, to finally get Baekhyun off his back, and for Jongin in a small way. At least giving it a proper chance will get rid of the what if questions he knows would be swirling around his head if he doesn’t try. And if it gets Chanyeol off his mind, so much the better.

The rest of the evening goes relatively well. The awkwardness fades, mostly and Kyungsoo only thinks of Chanyeol a handful of times. Considering the past month has been nearly filled with Kyungsoo trying and failing to get the other man out of his thoughts, he’s glad for the small bits of peace he gets while trying to pay attention to Jongin.

“So I’m gonna be in town for a while,” Jongin says.

“Yea, Baek mentioned that. What for again?”

“Oh this and that,” Jongin replies vaguely and waves his hand, “I won’t bore you with details it’s mostly work stuff.”

Kyungsoo nods and takes the last sip of his second cider, “I should get home. I’m so tired.”

“Right, well. Would you like to get dinner with me later this week? Say Thursday. It’d be nice to have a proper date that wasn’t a blatant set up,” Jongin smiles. Kyungsoo tries not to grimace as the awkward atmosphere creeps back in between them. Kyungsoo nods though. 

“Do you still have my number,” Kyungsoo asks. Jongin nods and Kyungsoo continues, “Just text me the details, yea?”

“Sure thing.”

Kyungsoo leaves. Sending one last text to Baekhyun on the cab ride home. He’s thankfully spared the sight of Chanyeol with someone at the door and he falls asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow. 

He wakes up only a little after his usual weekend time and he’s glad he bailed kind of early the night before. He makes a bagel for breakfast and parks himself in front of his computer. He’s working on a particularly complicated mash up and he’s determined to figure out where it’s going wrong today. 

His doorbell ringing loudly from three feet away make him jump even with the loud music playing through his head phones. He pauses his mix dropping his headphones to hang around his neck. He figures it’s Baekhyun there for the details of the night before so he doesn’t bother checking. 

He hates how his heart catches in his throat when it’s Chanyeol standing there giving him a goofy smile. Kyungsoo tries to take a deep breath. He’s not ready for whatever is about to happen but he has to deal so he steals himself.

“Kyungsoo, hey, how are you,” Chanyeol says and makes an attempt to walk into the apartment as he had become accustomed to doing even if it had been over a month since he’s done it. Kyungsoo throws his arm up on the threshold of the door effectively blocking Chanyeol off by keeping his other hand on the door itself.

“Is there something you need,” Kyungsoo asks looking past Chanyeol instead of at him.

“No I just realized we haven’t hung out in a while,” Chanyeol says and Kyungsoo can hear the hurt in his voice and has to hold onto the fact that he’s definitely hurt instead of give into the older man’s puppy like tendencies. 

“Your point?”

“I want to hang out with you?”

Kyungsoo says, “You can’t just decide to flippantly hang out with someone you had sex with and then not communicate at all for over a month aside from saying your phone was broken on a post it note.”

Kyungsoo glances at Chanyeol and he looks absolutely shocked and heartbroken. He goes to speak but abruptly closes his mouth, eyes sinking to the floor. Kyungsoo nods wishing Chanyeol would spill excuses about what was happened. Instead, he looks like a kicked dog and Kyungsoo hates that it makes him feel bad.

“Yea, I thought so. Goodbye,” Kyungsoo says needing the last word. He closes the door on Chanyeol and sits back down at his desk. He stares at the wall for what feels like hours until his phone rings forcing him out of his thoughts. 

The next few weeks pass in a blur for Kyungsoo. He goes on several more dates with Jongin and in a way it’s nice to have pretty steady plans and to get out of his apartment regularly but something still feels off and now he’s not sure what. 

Jongin does eventually go back to the suburbs and they keep up their relationship long distance with phone calls and going back and forth visiting each other on the weekends. It’s not long before it’s mid December though Kyungsoo has no idea how time passed so quickly and slowly at the same time. 

He’s barely seen Chanyeol. He doesn’t even see the other man bring people home anymore and Kyungsoo is both relieved and disappointed. He wonders if Chanyeol moved out and wishes it didn’t hurt to think that he did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, Jongin finally made a tangible appearance and Chanyeol and Kyungsoo finally "talked." We still have a long way off til the end~ Thoughts, comments, concerns?


	14. Chapter Fourteen

“Kyungsoo,” Junmyeon calls as he leaves the radio booth, “can I talk to you for a sec?”

Kyungsoo nods and turns to Baekhyun who was closely following him out, “Jongin is coming up this weekend. Want to get lunch with us tomorrow?”

“Maybe. Let me see if anything better comes up before I commit,” Baekhyun says, a cheeky grin spread across his face. 

Kyungsoo smirks and punches him in the arm, “Asshole.” Baekhyun’s grin widens and Kyungsoo rolls his eyes while Baekhyun turns and leaves the cramped hallway.

Kyungsoo follows Junmyeon to his even more cramped office and sits down across from. He licks his lips. He hasn’t been as distracted as he was so he doesn’t think it’s disciplinary but that doesn’t stop his mind from going there. He rubs his hands over the tops of his thighs as Junmyeon settles in behind his desk.

“Relax, it’s nothing bad,” Junmyeon smiles, “You know we’re having a Christmas special next weekend?”

Kyungsoo nods though he’s not sure what that has to do with him. He hasn’t been on the weekend show in over a year.

“Well it looks like Charles’ wife is being induced that day so he won’t be able to do it. We need someone who can come in last minute to host it. Do you think you could do it?”

“I’d have to rearrange some things, what about the backup?”

“He’s not confident enough to take it on. It’s live music and audience so a lot could go wrong and he’s never done one before. You’d really be doing the station a solid,” Junmyeon’s smile is a bit desperate. Junmyeon definitely knew what buttons to press of Kyungsoo’s to get him to say yes. Though loving his job enough to want to say yes is a perk. 

“No problem. I’ll do it,” Kyungsoo says nodding. 

“Thank you, oh my god. Here’s the general gist of what’s going to happen that day,” Junmyeon says and hands him a small stack of papers. He grabs another, larger stack and says, “This is the notes for the show and some key points you might want to research. The artist with you is Phoenyx Park. He’s local and kind of indie for our station but he’s made a big splash recently.”

“How so,” Kyungsoo asks as he skims through the paper work.

“He released a really controversial video featuring him sleeping with a bunch of different people interspersed with him doing everyday things. The people were all varying genders and races. Except it never showed anyones face. The song was pretty good, too. He’s been booked almost solid since. We’re lucky we got him almost all day. Anyway, all set?”

Kyungsoo nods again and straightens the papers on Junmyeon’s desk.

“Good, call if you have any questions. And seriously thanks again.”

Kyungsoo smiles, “No problem.”

Kyungsoo leaves the station happy and excited. Doing the morning show was his dream, it gives him the biggest listening audience and the most air time but they don’t get to do things like live music and in studio audiences like weekend or evening shows. 

Kyungsoo heads home in a great mood. He’s excited about the show, Jongin will be there to go to dinner in a few hours and things just seem to be coming together for him. He walks up his stairs to find a present wrapped in red and gold striped foil paper leaning against his door. There’s a giant red bow on it. Kyungsoo cautiously picks it up.

His mood drops instantly when a red post it note says to Kyungsoo from Chanyeol in neat script. He resists the urge to throw it at Chanyeol’s door. Instead he unlocks his own door, dumping the present in his coat closet to try and forget about it. He’s not sure why but he can’t just throw it out. He figures out of sight, out of mind and when he eventually stumbles on it again He’ll just throw it out and call it a day.

Kyungsoo looks up the video Junmyeon told him about. He’s right, it’s interesting and he can see why it made a splash. It clearly shows the singer is not straight and is kind of promiscuous. There’s a lot of kissing against walls and Kyungsoo’s mind flashes to Chanyeol kissing against his door. That’s when he stops paying attention to the video deciding to read over the notes while he listens to the song. It’s good. The voice is refreshing and easy to listen to and the acoustic guitar and light drums that make up the instrumental is soothing.

He finds himself replaying the song over and over while he goes over the show notes and does some of the more light research for the show. Before he knows it, Jongin is knocking at his door.

“Hey, you ready,” Jongin asks when Kyungsoo opens the door. Jongin places a light kiss on Kyungsoo’s lips and gives him a soft smile when he pulls back. Kyungsoo returns the smile his good mood definitely returned aided by the song

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry~ this took so long and it's so short. As predicted the holidays were hella busy but things should be more calm now. I'm hoping to get another chapter up later this week, for now, I hope you enjoyed this one!


	15. Chapter Fifteen

Kyungsoo follows Jongin out of his apartment and into the other’s car. They’ve been dating for about a month now. It’s been nice, easy, Kyungsoo thinks, except for the semi-long distance of course. Kyungsoo looks over at Jongin as he pulls onto the street.

“Where are we going?”

“I got us reservations at this fancy restaurant nearby.”

Kyungsoo nods. Jongin reaches over and grabs Kyungsoo’s hand holding it as he drives. Kyungsoo squeezes Jongin’s hand and then looks out the window as they slowly make their way through Friday night traffic. Kyungsoo figures they could have taken the El there in the same time or less it takes to drive there but Jongin likes to drive and doesn’t mind the traffic so he doesn’t say anything.

Kyungsoo considers filling the silence by telling Jongin about hosting the Christmas special but decides it can wait. He’d rather Jongin focus on driving and they’ll be talking at dinner all night anway.

It takes Jongin circling the block several times to find a parking spot but eventually they’re parked and ready to go inside. Kyungsoo waits patiently as Jongin jogs around the front of the car and opens the door for him. Jogin laces their fingers together again almost as soon as he exits the car. Kyungsoo forces a smile at him. Walking like this, showing open and public displays of affection has always been for him but he’s trying. 

“It’s this way,” Jongin says pulling on Kyungsoo’s hand a little bit to get him to start walking. Kyungsoo follows along. He’s got a good idea of where they’re going then. He’s happy; he loves Enoteca Roma. It’s a quaint wine bar and roman cuisine restaurant that’s kind of on the pricey side. They walk in comfortable silence and it’s not long before Jongin is nudging him towards the restaurant.

He looks at Kyungsoo, a big grin on his face, “A little birdy told me you like to come here to sit on the porch and drink wine.”

Kyungsoo grins back, “Yes. It is. This is great.”

“It’s too cold for their patio, but I’m glad you like it.”

They walk in and get seated almost right away because of Jongin’s reservation. Kyungsoo usually has to wait half an hour or so when he comes. He really should start making reservations, he thinks, but he knows he can’t really be bothered with it. Instead he revels in the winter wine menu trying to figure out what wine he wants to drink to match what food he might order.

The waiter comes to the table holding a bottle and says, “Hello, I’ll be waiting on you this evening. Tonight we have the 2011 Punta Crena Pigato, Liguria as the feature and it’s on discount if you buy it by the bottle.”

“Actually-” Kyungsoo starts.

“It sounds perfect,” Jongin exclaims, “We’ll buy the bottle.”

Kyungsoo stares at Jongin trying not to be annoyed. He knows he’s just excited and it’s a good deal, but that’s not the point of a wine bar. He shrugs it off, he can try glasses of different wines another time, he thinks, tonight isn’t about that.

“Right. Sounds good,” Kyungsoo murmurs, perusing the menu for something he thinks would pair well with the wine. While the waiter opens the bottle and pours it into their glasses. They wait to order making small talk about their week and when they finally order Kyungsoo decides to tell Jongin his good news.

“So, um, I have some good and bad news.”

Jongin looks at him brow creasing, “Okay?”

“So I got asked to host the weekend Christmas special.”

“How is that bad?”

“It’s for the weekend we were supposed to that trip to Wisconsin.”

Jongin looks at him drawing out the silence and making it awkward.

“What are you thinking,” Kyungsoo asks.

Jongin sighs and takes a sip of his wine, “Did you say yes?”

“Of course I said yes. It’s a great opportunity. I love radio DJing. Why would I say no?”

“Because, Kyungsoo, You’re already at the top of your career and we had plans.”

“Nothing was set in stone, we haven’t even booked the hotel yet,” Kyungsoo points out. 

Jongin sighs again and looks to the side gripping the sides of the table. 

“Look,” Kyungsoo says, “I can see why this isn’t the best news but it’s not as bad as you're making it.”

“Do you even care that we had plans?”

Kyungsoo’s eyes widen and his nostrils flare, “Of course. I was looking forward to it, Jongin, but I also love my job and when asked I’ll likely take the extra hours.”

“You don’t need them. So what’s the point?”

“What part of I love my job do you not understand,” Kyungsoo asks sighing. He didn’t think it’d turn into an argument. “I’m sorry I didn’t think more about how this would affect you but you should respect my choices.”

Jongin huffs, “Respect your choices? Like your choice to choose your job over me?”

Kyungsoo takes a deep, calming breath, “I have spent every weekend with you since we started dating. I get that we’re long distance but sometimes things are going to come up on the weekends and cancel plans. Please be more understanding.”

Jongin opens and closes his mouth before finally saying, “Fine. Let’s just enjoy our current weekend then.”

“We can always do it the weekend after,” Kyungsoo states.

“No we can’t,” Jongin grinds out, “My sister is coming in that weekend to celebrate Christmas.”

“Oh right. I forgot. I’m sure we can reschedule. Can we just agree to have a nice dinner and weekend? Please?”

Jongin nods and then their waiter appears with their food. Kyungsoo is grateful to have something to occupy him. That definitely didn’t go as he expected. He can’t really understand why Jongin is so upset with him. They had tentative plans to go to Wisconsin but nothing concrete. They didn’t even know exactly what they wanted to do there, it was just going to be a weekend get away. 

He glances at Jongin who’s stabbing angrily at his pasta guessing it must have been more than just a weekend trip to him. Kyungsoo tries to shrug it off and enjoy the food. They make more small talk but it’s all forced and eventually Kyungsoo gives up on conversing. Jongin drives him home, parks and walks him up to his door all in relative silence.

“Well, goodnight,” Kyungsoo mumbles turning to open his door.

“Soo, wait,” Jongin mutters looking at the ground. Kyungsoo stops and turns back to him. “I’m sorry. I just, really wanted to take a little vacation. I get that things come up but I was looking forward to it.”

“I’m sorry. But I really want to host this show.”

Jongin nods, “I know. I love that you love your job so much. I just forget that not everyone wishes they’d stuck to what they loved instead of something practical.”

Kyungsoo frowns. As far as he knew, Jongin loved his job as an accountant with a pretty big firm that handles a lot of the major farms in mid to southern Illinois. Kyungsoo makes a mental note to ask Jongin more about himself but he isn’t sure how to reply to that statement.

Jongin, thankfully, takes it out of his hands by asking, “Can I come in? We can cuddle on the couch and watch a movie or something?”

“Yea. That sounds nice,” Kyungsoo smiles.

They’re cuddled up on the couch, channel surfing when Jongin starts nuzzling Kyungsoo’s neck. Kyungsoo flips to the next channel trying to find something good. Jongin kisses Kyungsoo’s neck just below his ear and goose bumps rise up on his arms.

“What are you doing,” Kyungsoo murmurs.

“Isn’t it obvious,” Jongin says pulling away to grin at Kyungsoo, “Showering you in affection.”

Kyungsoo laughs. Jongin stops him by sealing their lips together in a chaste kiss. Jongin pulls back and looks down at Kyungsoo to make sure it’s okay before pushing back against his lips more heatedly. 

Kyungsoo pushes back. This is nice. So far their kissing has all been pretty calm but this is anything but. This is fighting for dominance as they deepen the kiss and soon enough Jongin is lying flat on the couch with Kyungsoo on top of him. 

Kyungsoo can clearly feel Jongin’s erection pressing insistently against his thigh and his own is begging for friction. Kyungsoo grinds against Jongin pulling moans from them both.

“Kyungsoo,” Jongin breathes, “bed?”

Kyungsoo nods but takes his time getting off of Jongin and then pulling him up to drag the younger to the bedroom. Making out and grinding on each other is much easier with more room, Kyungsoo finds, and wonders why they didn’t just start here. 

Jongin pulls Kyungsoo’s shirt off and starts kissing down his chest. Stopping to tease at one of Kyungsoo’s nipples with his teeth before continuing to kiss his way down. He looks up at Kyungsoo, pupils blown wide and brow raised.

Kyungsoo’s nods. He’s not entirely sure of the question but he’s sure he wants it. Jongin pulls Kyungsoo’s pants and boxers off. Kyungsoo whimpers at the sudden cold air on his dick but it quickly turns to a moan as Jongin bites gently at his inner thigh. 

“Jongin,” Kyungsoo bites out.

“Shhh. I’ll get to it,” he replies continuing to tease Kyungsoo by touching everything but his dick. 

Kyungsoo moans but still refuses to plead and beg for it. He has dignity and would like to keep it. Jongin finally does what Kyungsoo wants, giving a small lick to the head of Kyungsoo’s cock. Kyungsoo groans and then Jongin takes the entirety of Kyungsoo’s dick in his mouth working the small bit he can’t fit with his hand. 

Kyungsoo’s moans become one long string of grunts. He has his arm flung over his eyes and the other clutching at his sheets like he’ll fall if he lets go as he tries not to buck into Jongin’s mouth. Jongin uses his free hand to massage the sensitive skin of Kyungsoo’s thigh thoroughly over stimulating Kyungsoo in all the best ways. 

Jongin pulls Kyungsoo to the edge quickly. He barely has time to shout a warning and then he’s pushed over the edge. Jongin happily swallows it. Kyungsoo’s panting and his arm is still over his face. Jongin moves back up the bed hovering over Kyungsoo dropping kisses to whatever part of Kyungsoo is under his mouth.

“Babe,” he says and tugs gently at Kyungsoo’s arm to move it. Kyungsoo reluctantly lets him move his arm as his breathing starts to become more controlled. Jongin kisses Kyungsoo deeply rubbing his erection against Kyungsoo’s thigh.

“What do you want,” Kyungsoo breathes though praying he doesn’t want to fuck. Kyungsoo’s not sure he can handle it after that. 

Jongin sucks at a small hickey on to Kyungsoo’s neck humming to show he’s thinking about what he’d like to do. He pulls away slightly and places a light kiss to the spot.

“Hmmm, Can I…” Jongin starts and Kyungsoo holds his breath, “fuck your thighs?”

“Um, what?”

“You know,” Jongin replies nuzzling Kyungsoo’s ear and sending more goosebumps up his spine, “use lube to fuck your thighs. They’re so nice, Soo.”

Kyungsoo swallows, it’s an odd request but it’s better than any other alternative at the moment, “Sure. What do you need me to do?”

“Lube and get on your hands and knees, please?”

Kyungsoo nods rolling slightly to reach into his night stand for the lube. Jongin sits back on his heels watching Kyungsoo as he gets into position.

“Let me know if you don’t like it or need me to stop okay,” Jongin says placing a soft kiss between Kyungsoo’s shoulder blades. Kyungsoo nods so Jongin lubes up his dick.

“Bring your legs closer together,” Jongin murmurs and Kyungsoo complies.

He slides his dick between his legs. It feels weird for Kyungsoo but not bad and judging by the moans now slipping past Jongin’s lips it feels amazing. Jongin sets a fast rhythm and Kyungsoo helps by flexing his thighs. Jongin groans when he does so he continues to sporadically flex. He’ll definitely be sore in the morning but having Jongin’s dick between his thighs is a lot hotter than he expected it to be. 

Jongin grips Kyungsoo’s ass cheek making Kyungsoo moan as well and flex his thighs more. Jongin grunts and goes still. Kyungsoo can feel Jongin’s dick twitch as he comes and then folds over on top of Kyungsoo panting. Kyungsoo doesn't say anything as Jongin catches his breath. 

“Was that okay,” Jongin rasps.

“Yea. It was great.”

Jongin turns his head and presses another kiss to Kyungsoo’s back, “Good,” he mumbles against it and then rolls over to spread out on his back. Kyungsoo gets up to grab a damp wash cloth to clean off his thighs and dick. He tosses it to Jongin to do the same and then finds his spare bed sheets.

Together they put the new sheets on and Kyungsoo makes a mental note to do laundry tomorrow. Jongin gives him another small kiss before they fall asleep. Jongin curled up with his head on Kyungsoo’s chest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woops. So I guess I meant next week when I said later this week. I hope this chapter makes up for the wait. Lots of angst but also smut~ It's also a bit longer than most chapters on average. Thoughts, comments, concerns?


	16. Chapter Sixteen

Baekhyun pounds on Kyungsoo’s door. He’s annoyed that he had to come here before getting on with his day. He supposes it’s his fault for stopping by the studio and getting trapped by Junmyeon into taking Kyungsoo some paperwork.

“Hey, Kyungsoo, open up. I don’t got all day.”

The door opens half way through Baekhyun banging on it again for good measure, he almost hits Jongin in the face, “oh.”

“Baekhyun,” Jongin greets, “Soo’s asleep.”

Baekhyun eyes Jongin taking in the boxers, t-shirt, and overall rumpled look. It takes all his effort not to clap himself on the back. Instead he smirks at Jongin, Jongin blushes.

“Well, I came by to drop off this,” Baekhyun says pulling the manilla envelope of paperwork out of his bag, “It’s for Kyungsoo from work. Junmyeon forgot to give it to him yesterday. I was gonna drag him out for breakfast, but I’ll just see myself out.”

Jongin rolls his eyes but smiles fondly at Baekhyun, “Yea. We were having a perfectly lazy morning so goodbye.”

Baekhyun shakes his head and leaves, unable to wipe the smile from his face. He can’t believe he finally succeeded in setting Kyungsoo and Jongin up. He knew if Kyungsoo would just give it a chance it’d work. He feels like a real life version of cupid and it has him floating as he leaves Kyungsoo’s apartment to head to his one on one with Sehun. He grabs a quick breakfast and figures he could get in a practice with the masters of the dojo who usually leaves early before his time with Sehun.

His good mood carries through being scolded for not practicing more and then being put through rigorous sparing and routines with the master. He’s dying and starfished on the ground trying to catch his breath but still smiling when Sehun walks in ready to spar. 

“Looks like I’m done kicking your ass for today,” Will says, “Better come next Saturday, too.”

Baekhyun waves him off limply unable to talk. Sehun sits down crossing his legs into a pretzel ungracefully in front of himself just outside of Baekhyun’s reach.

“Yah,” Baekhyun pants, “Can you grab me my water?”

He points to his bottle on the other side of the room. He can’t quite stand up yet. Sehun leans back on his hands.

“No. I think I’ll just sit here. I was supposed to have a lesson, but it looks like my instructor is indisposed.”

“Shut up,” Baekhyun huffs but he’s still smiling. Baekhyun gets to his feet and goes for his water bottle downing half of it in one go before dropping back to the ground now, at least, in a sitting position. 

“Run through your warm up,” Baekhyun tells him still slightly winded but finally getting back to a more normal heart rate.

Sehun stands up and grumbles as he starts warming his muscles up. Baekhyun watches his form but Sehun really has improved a lot. He really doesn’t need these one on ones. Sehun stops suddenly and stares at Baekhyun.

“Why’d you stop,” Baekhyun questions trying to sound authoritative but his good mood ruins it. 

“You were staring at me with a weird smile,” Sehun replies flatly.

Baekhyun rolls his eyes but stands up, and gives a good natured laugh, “Sorry, I was spacing out. Are you ready to run through drills?”

Sehun nods and Baekhyun runs Sehun through several drills and sparring sessions. Sehun stops and stares at Baekhyun every so often prompting Baekhyun to question the younger but Sehun always shakes his head and says nothing and continues with the practice. 

“What’s got you so happy,” Sehun mumbles as they walk toward the locker room at the end of practice.

Baekhyun sighs happily, “Nothing really.”

“Good date then,” Sehun grumbles.

Baekhyun laughs and shakes his head but doesn’t say anything. When he glances at Sehun, Sehun’s lips are pressed together in a straight line as he looks passed Baekhyun. 

“Right, well, see you later,” Sehun says. 

Baekhyun nods, “Uh, yea. Bye.”

Baekhyun is utterly confused by Sehun’s sour mood through the whole of practice. They’d been getting along and teasing each other for a while. Baekhyun actually looks forward to his practice with Sehun but today it wasn't fun. Deciding not to think on it any longer, Baekhyun showers in the locker room and then heads to the cafe down the street to get lunch and caffeine while he works on a few segments for next week’s shows. 

Baekhyun’s in the middle of researching new artists to feature during the week, sandwich left forgotten and half eaten once he found his flow. His table shakes a little but he’s not really paying attention, instead reading a blog post about Kehlani’s newest album, trying to figure out if she’s new enough to have on the segment.

Something nudges his foot so he pulls his feet in and then he hears a familiar exasperated sigh and finally looks up from his laptop to see Sehun sitting across from him. Baekhyun’s lips quirk up in a half smile.

“Hey, long time no see.”

Sehun scoffs, “Don’t make dad jokes, they aren’t funny.”

Baekhyun’s smirk breaks into a full smile, “I’m pretty sure they are.”

He doesn’t say anything else, just goes back to the blog post deciding to put Kehlani in the maybe list to discuss with Kyungsoo later. He’s more informed on that sort of thing. Sehun coughs loudly and Baekhyun looks up to see him doing that lip press thing again.

“Something wrong,” Baekhyun asks glancing back down at his laptop and frowning at it before looking back up at Sehun.

“Yea, kind of.”

“Want to talk about it,” Baekhyun asks closing his laptop to give Sehun his full attention.

Sehun blinks at him like he didn’t expect Baekhyun to care. Baekhyun smiles softly at Sehun, “If not it’s fine.”

Baekhyun picks up his sandwich and continues eating waiting for Sehun to speak. It takes the younger a while but Sehun kind of reminds Baekhyun of a younger Kyungsoo in some ways so he waits as patiently as he can. Which means he stares Sehun down until he finally cracks. 

“Have you ever...Nevermind it’s stupid,” Sehun scoffs again and looks away folding his arms.

“No spit it out. You’ve started, gotta see it through.”

Sehun sighs, “Fine. I- Have you ever liked someone but not known how to ask the person out?”

“Ah relationship issues. No. I’ve always been as dashing and handsome as I am now,” Baekhyun deadpans keeping his face straight for all of 5 seconds before breaking into a self satisfied smile.

Sehun glares at him and stands up, “I shouldn’t have said anyth-”

“No Sehun, wait. Sorry. I didn’t realize you were this serious,” Baekhyun backpedals and says softly, “Of course I have. Who hasn’t been insecure when asking someone out?”

Sehun glances at Baekhyun and cautiously sits back down. Now he’s staring Baekhyun down. Baekhyun feels slightly unnerved and realizes why exactly it works on Kyungsoo when he doesn’t want to talk about something.

“In college, there was this guy. He was perfect. Amazing radio voice and singing voice, I swear I melted everytime he opened his mouth.”

“Get on with it,” Sehun huffs. Baekhyun glares at him.

“Well anyway, I eventually worked up the courage to ask him out. It took me months of practicing vocally with him before I finally got around to it. But the worst he could say was no, right?”

Baekhyun eats the last bit of his sandwich and checks his phone. Sehun coughs.

“So what happened?”

“Oh right. We dated for a few months but it didn’t work out.”

Sehun nods, “Thanks.”

“Anytime,” Baekhyun replies smiling at the other again, “I should go. I’m supposed to meet up with some friends for dinner.”

“You mean the person you had a date with that’s making you so happy,” Sehun huffs. Looks like his sour mood is back, Baekhyun thinks frowning slightly.

“No, I mean, my best friend and his boyfriend. What’s it matter to you, anyway?”

“You’re right sorry,” Sehun mumbles, “just moody I guess.”

Baekhyun nods putting his laptop in his bag and pulling his jacket on, “Alright, well work on that before I see you again, okay?”

“Yea, okay,” Sehun says sarcastically but he’s up and gone before Baekhyun can reply.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SORRY! I didn't mean to take this long but writing this chapter was v difficult for some reason. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. Thoughts, Comments, Concerns?


	17. Chapter Seventeen

Kyungsoo wakes up the next morning to the smell of breakfast wafting into his room. He loves this. He loves waking up to someone making breakfast for him. He smiles and stretches out before finally rolling out of bed to see what Jongin is making.

Walking up behind Jongin in the kitchen, Kyungsoo wraps his arms around his waist and puts his chin on the younger’s shoulder.

“Watcha making?”

“Eggs and bacon. It’s what you had in the fridge,” Jongin says almost apologetically.

“Looks great. I’ll make some toast.”

The morning passes peacefully cooking, eating and hanging out in spurts of companionable  silences and chatting. Kyungsoo sits at his desk in the living room half working on stuff for his show and the Christmas special and half watching the cooking competition show Jongin put on the TV while he reads over some documents from work. Kyungsoo thinks he could get used to this.

The rest of the weekend passes in a similar fashion. He goes to dinner with Jongin and Baekhyun. Jongin comes back to his apartment and they do the same thing Sunday until Jongin leaves to go home. Kyungsoo’s content and happy with Jongin. So when he goes into work on Monday, he asks if he can have Friday off after checking with Baekhyun that he’s okay with doing the Friday morning show by himself. He wants to make up missing a full weekend away with Jongin by surprising him with an overnight at a spa and hotel.

The week passes pretty quickly as Kyungsoo makes some last minute plans. He books a place about 20 minutes from Jongin’s work and also makes an appointment for a couple’s massage figuring they could decide what else to do once they get there. 

Thursday afternoon he’s in a rented car driving south on 90 towards Jongin. It takes him an hour and a half and several highway changes to get there but eventually he’s pulling into the parking lot of the hotel and spa with a name he couldn’t even begin to try and pronounce. He checks and and brings his stuff up to the room before hopping back in his car.

He stops by Baekhyun’s parents house to kill time until Jongin is off work. It’s a nice visit and she feeds him well complaining about Baekhyun never coming to see them. Kyungsoo relishes in the attention. Since his family doesn’t live anywhere close enough to visit regularly, Baekhyun’s family has become his family over the years. 

Kyungsoo leaves full and happy driving over to Jongin’s apartment. He sees the other’s car in the parking lot as he expected. He goes up to the door and knocks. Jongin answers in a button down and slacks as he’s loosening his tie.

“Hell-Oh, Kyungsoo, what are you doing here? Did we have plans?”

“No. I’m surprising you,” Kyungsoo smiles softly.

“Oh. Well come in.”

Kyungsoo stretches up and places a chaste kiss on Jongin’s lip before stepping past him into the apartment.

“Pack a bag, with a work outfit, swim trunks, and some lounge clothes for 2 days.”

“Wait, Kyungsoo. I can’t just leave I have work tomorrow,” Jongin sounds exasperated.

Kyungsoo’s smile falters a little but doesn’t fall, “I know that. I felt bad that we couldn’t do a weekend getaway so I got us a hotel and spa about 20 minutes from your work. I have it until Saturday afternoon. I figured you could come tonight. We could get dinner, hit the jacuzzi for a little bit tonight. I booked us a couple massage tomorrow night and then we could do whatever Saturday morning.”

“That’s all nice, but…”

“But you don’t want to…” Kyungsoo supplies smile dropping.

Jongin grabs Kyungsoo’s hand and pulls him over to sit on the couch keeping a hold of his hand.

“No, no I want to. I just wish you’d told me instead of surprising me. It’s fine. Really. Let me just pack real quick.”

“Yea, okay,” Kyungsoo says trying to smile but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes anymore. He was so excited but now he almost wishes he’d let it be.

“What about the Christmas special?”

“That’s on Sunday.” 

Jongin nods and stands up, “Okay. It’ll just take a minute to pack.”

They go out to dinner but tension remains between them making it hard to enjoy. Kyungsoo isn’t very hungry either and it doesn’t help sparking a small argument for no reason. Kyungsoo sighs.

“Can’t we just get over this? Why is our relationship so uneasy,” Kyungsoo asks softly twirling the pasta around his fork that he can’t really bring himself to eat.

“It’s not my fault it’s tense, Kyungsoo,” Jongin bites out.

Kyungsoo sighs again, “I didn’t say it was.”

He sets his fork down giving up on appearances and looking away from the table because he can’t bring himself to look at Jongin right now. Jongin continues to eat in silence making Kyungsoo more and more uneasy. Eventually he stops laying his fork down and sighing.

“You’re right. I’m sorry. I just didn’t have a great day at work.”

Kyungsoo finally looks at Jongin again to say something snarky but Jongin’s face stops him, “Yea? It’s okay. Let’s just go back to the hotel and relax.”

The tension smooths itself out but leaves Kyungsoo wondering why it keeps happening. They have a nice time relaxing in the jacuzzi before going to bed. 

The next day Kyungsoo keeps himself busy by finishing up some last minute things for the Christmas special and starting on a few things for the week after. He wishes he had his DJ equipment so he could make mixes but his dinky, work issued laptop can’t handle the software he uses unfortunately. 

When Jongin comes back, they decide to get dinner in the hotel restaurant instead of leaving. They both order the steak special and Kyungsoo orders a wine that he knows will pair well with it before Jongin says anything. The food comes out relatively quickly and Kyungsoo’s glad to have something to do with his hands.

“So, our massage is scheduled for 8pm. We should have enough time after dinner to relax in the room for  while.”

“About that, can we not get a massage?”

“I mean, I already paid for it. It’s too late to cancel,” Kyungsoo says looking up from cutting his steak.

“I just don’t feel like it,” Jongin replies pointedly not looking at Kyungsoo.

“But it’s paid for. I’d rather it not go to waste.”

“I just don’t like the idea of people I don’t know touching me.”

Kyungsoo’s nostrils flare, he’s had enough.

“You couldn’t mention this yesterday when I could still get a refund?”

“I forgot and I didn’t want to argue about something stupid again,” Jongin whisper yells.

“It wouldn’t have been an argument yesterday,” Kyungsoo replies making sure his voice is as calm as possible, “Because yesterday I could have canceled and gotten my money back.”

“What does it matter? Let’s just eat and stop always arguing over useless things,” Jongin says voice tight.

Kyungsoo rolls his eyes but drops the subject resigning to wasted money. He can’t believe Jongin can’t just try it. He doesn’t understand what the big deal is. They finish dinner in relative silence and head back to the room. 

Kyungsoo changes into his boxers and a t-shirt to get ready for bed since they probably won’t be leaving again and gets on the bed. He turns on the TV to channel surf. Jongin showers and joins him in the bed. It starts innocent but soon Jongin is kissing Kyungsoo’s neck in the spot he knows gets Kyungsoo riled up but Kyungsoo isn’t really in the mood so he pulls away.

“Come on, Soo. I’m sorry. Please, I’d just rather spend alone time with you.”

“A couple’s massage is alone.”

“If you’re so insistent on a massage, I could give you one and it’ll end it a happy ending.”

“That’s not the point and you know it.”

“Jesus, Kyungsoo, I just didn’t want to, can’t you accept that.”

“Yea,” Kyungsoo sighs, he hates fighting all the time. He nods and looks at Jongin, “Yea. I’m sorry. I just hate wasting money.”

“Let me make it up to you,” Jongin smiles and goes back to kissing Kyungsoo’s neck. He let’s Jongin this time and it turns into making out and jerking each other off but Kyungsoo’s heart isn’t really in it. Kyungsoo gets up this time and showers and when he comes out of the bathroom Jongin is asleep.

Kyungsoo crawls into bed and goes to sleep too. Though it doesn’t come easily. His mind is filled with thoughts. He wonders why he’s always fighting with Jongin but eventually he drifts off into sleep, too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprised? Me too! Lol. I didn't expect to get another chapter up so soon but I've been hit with the writing bug and figured I wouldn't turn away. So another chapter!! I promise Yeollie will make an appearance in the next one. ;)


	18. Chapter Eighteen

Saturday morning Kyungsoo wakes up to see Jongin already up and dressed. Kyungsoo looks at him as he tiptoes around thinking Kyungsoo’s still asleep. When Jongin reaches for a pad of paper and pen, Kyungsoo finally sits up.

“Where are you going?”

“Oh, I was going to let you sleep. I got called into work, emergency.”

Kyungsoo gives him a blank stare before finally saying, “An emergency? For a low level accountant?”

Jongin’s sheepish look turns to fury in seconds, “Look. I just have some stuff to do. I’ll see you next weekend or something.”

Jongin grabs the rest of his stuff and storms out of the room. Kyungsoo sighs and drops back to the bed. This weekend didn’t go how he planned at all. He slowly gets out of bed and gathers his stuff to check out. He technically could stay for a few more hours but he doesn’t see the point and soon he’s driving back up to Chicago. 

Attempting to push Jongin from his mind, Kyungsoo goes to the record store again and buys a few things and then goes home and throws himself entirely into preparing for the Christmas Special but he can only be so prepared and ends up working on another mix. The exhaustion of not thinking about two things instead of just one tires him out early at least and he’s in his bed asleep by 9. 

Kyungsoo wakes up the next morning and decides to put a lot of effort into his appearance. Normally, he’s just recording audio so it doesn’t matter but parts of today’s special will be video recorded as well so he styles his hair and puts on a nice christmas sweater and black skinny jeans. He’s smoothing down the sweater and debating if he should change it again or not when an alarm on his phone goes off saying he should be leaving his apartment soon. Kyungsoo sighs and grabs what he needs, throws on his jacket and leaves his apartment hopping on the el.

He walks into the studio to find it a madhouse. Live shows always take a lot more planning and have a lot more emergencies leading up to when it airs so Kyungsoo isn’t surprised. It’s exciting for him, if he’s being honest. His show isn’t nearly this much fun. He’s thrown right into when he steps in with a stylist coming in asking if she can put on a layer of make up for the cameras. Kyungsoo consents and follows her. While there an intern comes up to ask questions about the notes and directions for various setup spots they’ll have during commercials. 

Eventually Junmyeon finds him in the studio they’ll be recording in and acting out the directions the interns and various other people working the special will have to do during more complicated set ups. 

“Ah, Kyungsoo. Come meet our guest,” Junmyeon says and glances behind him only to realize there’s no one there. Kyungsoo smiles.

“Where’d you lose him,” Kyungsoo teases. 

Junmyeon glares goodnaturedly at Kyungsoo before going back to the door and waving someone in. The person shuffles in and Kyungsoo glances up from the set up he was working out only to feel his stomach sink and his heart jump into his throat. 

“Right, Kyungsoo, this is Phoenyx Park, otherwise known as Chanyeol.”

“Yea, um,” Chanyeol says, “We know each other.”

Kyungsoo searches Chanyeol’s face but the other just coughs awkwardly and looks away.

“Oh, how do you know each other,” Junmyeon asks oblivious to tension that appeared in the room between Chanyeol and Kyungsoo.

“We’re, um, neighbors,” Kyungsoo says slowly before turning back to the intern to continue going over the show and trying to stop the tears of frustration stinging his eyes. Of course, it’s Chanyeol, he chides himself. He should have realized why the voice sounds familiar and the hallway looked familiar. But he’s a professional, so he cleanly locks his emotions away.

“I have to go take care of some things, Chanyeol. Will you be okay here?”

“Uh, yea. I need to tune my guitar,” Chanyeol replies lifting the guitar case in his hand. Junmyeon nods. Kyungsoo studiously ignores Chanyeol as he sits down in the corner of the room out of the way and starts strumming chords on his guitar and fiddles with the strings. 

Eventually, though, the interns all leave or don’t need him anymore and Kyungsoo is left trying to find something to do. He ends up sitting in the chair he’ll be in for the majority of the recording in front of a mic going over his notes. He jumps when the chair next to him moves and Chanyeol drops into it.

“Kyungsoo, can I-”

“No.”

“Please? You’ve seen-”

“Not here. Not now. This is my work place,” Kyungsoo says not glancing up from his notes though the words are blurring together.

“After?”

Kyungsoo doesn’t reply. He’s not sure he could bring himself to reply.

“Alright guys,” Junmyeon says leaning on the doorway, “We’re about to let the live audience in. Are we ready to go?”

Kyungsoo pulls in a deep breath. The next 4 hours are going to be excruciating but he can do this. He forces himself to finally look fully at Chanyeol. Chanyeol is staring at him with soft eyes. Kyungsoo regrets looking immediately but he has to appear normal. He has to get used to it so he forces himself to count to five in his head before looking away slowly to Junmyeon and nodding.

Junmyeon has the audience file in and sit the chairs set up out of the way on the far end of the room with a good view of Kyungsoo and Chanyeol. The next 30 minutes fly by as they perform the last sound checks to make sure everything is working correctly though he’s hyper aware of Chanyeol next to him. All too soon, Junmyeon is telling them to put on their headphones and they’re live in 30 seconds. Kyungsoo takes a few more deep breathes and jumps in.

“Hi, welcome back to KZ105.5, this is the Fire-y Christmas Special featuring local and rising singer, Phoenyx Park. How are you doing today, Phoenyx?”

“Wonderful play on words, Kyungsoo. I’m doing pretty good. I hope everyone else in the audience is, too,” Chanyeol replies and shoots a cheeky smile to the audience who yell and clap in response.

“It certainly sounds like it. What do you say we kick off this special with a live Christmas song?”

“I’d love to,” Chanyeol replies and picks up his guitar.

Chanyeol launches into his own arrangement of White Christmas and starts to sing. It gives Kyungsoo chills but he’s a professional so he mutes his mic and refreshes his mind of the notes for the show even though he’s pretty sure he has them memorized by now. 

Kyungsoo glances up at Chanyeol when he can’t look at his notes anymore. Chanyeol is smiling softly and looking down as his guitar while singing and plucking out the notes. It makes Kyungsoo’s heart squeeze in his chest. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath before opening again and focusing on a point just to the side of Chanyeol’s head. He tells himself he can do this and he almost believes it.

The show continues pretty well. The cut to a commercial, Chanyeol plays his own song in acoustic form, and then they do a few bits with the audience that are a lot easier for Kyungsoo to invest himself in but then it’s the interview portion and Kyungsoo wants to bury himself. Most of the questions are relationship and music related and he wishes Junmyeon had focused in on something else for the interview.

“So, Phoenyx, your album is doing very well. It’s sold just over 100,000 copies in the first week, is that right?”

“Ah, yes…”

Kyungsoo wants to die, he didn’t ask the question right. He knows that. It was too yes or no. He breaths through the phrase I am a professional a mantra in his brain.

“That’s amazing for a first album and only a local start. What was the first thing you did when you heard the news?”

“Honestly,” Chanyeol smiles and scratches his cheek, “I called my mom and ended up crying, happy tears of course, and telling her about it.”

“Isn’t that sweet,” Kyungsoo says more flatly than he meant to, he perseveres, “What would you say is your favorite song off the album?”

Chanyeol goes into detail about his favorite song and why and the music portion of the interview continues. Aside from the first few mess ups, it’s normal. Kyungsoo’s pretty sure he’s never been this nervous while interviewing somebody but he pulls himself together. Chanyeol, on the other hand, seems to be absolutely fine. He’s smooth and easy going. His answers come easily and Kyungsoo wants to punch him for how easy he seems to be handling everything.

They cut to another commercial break and then Chanyeol plays his favorite song live. It was a nice touch to order that way, Kyungsoo thinks. It makes Chanyeol more compelling as an artist and Kyungsoo wishes he could say Chanyeol doesn’t have charisma or a good presence but he’d be grossly lying to himself. 

The second interview happens 15 minutes before they’re off air and Kyungsoo is ready to run from the room. He doesn’t want to ask invasive personal questions. He doesn’t want to know but it’s his job. He composes himself during yet another commercial break. 

“So, in the video for your single Falling for You. It features presumably you kissing and doing the do, so to speak, with a bunch of different people. What was that like?”

“It was intense and interesting. The kissing against the door was always filmed before they knew anything so it’s completely unstaged, but between the kissing and the do,” Chanyeol laughs, “I explained what it was for and let them know it didn’t have to happen. So the do was semi staged but still real.”

Kyungsoo has a hard time breathing around the knot in his throat. He fakes a laugh, “No boyfriend or girlfriend to get in the way of that then?”

“Ah, no,” Chanyeol smiles, lips tightly pulled across his teeth, “I probably wouldn’t have agreed to a video like that if I had a girlfriend or boyfriend.”

“That makes sense. What about now? The video was filmed a few months ago.”

“No,” He says quietly, “No one right now. Though there is someone I’m interested in.”

Kyungsoo is pretty sure he’s dying. He’s not usually given to hyperbole like this, but it feels like his insides are collapsing in on themselves.

“That’s nice,” he replies voice shaky, “it looks like that’s just about the end of our show though. Phoenyx is gonna play us out with one more Christmas classic and then Todd will be here to carry on with the evening show where he’s giving away tickets to the R. City, Tinashe and Maroon 5 concert so be sure to stay tuned.”

Chanyeol begins playing Blue Christmas and Kyungsoo wants to run but he waits in his chair until he gets the all clear from Junmyeon. As soon as Junmyeon’s voice crackles through his headphones he’s pull them off. Chanyeol’s quick to set down his guitar but not quick enough to catch Kyungsoo. 

“Kyungsoo, wait,” he pleads as Kyungsoo flees the room. 

Not bothering to listen, Kyungsoo all but runs to staff room to grab his stuff. He doesn’t even have his jacket on. He doesn’t really care about the cold right. His whole body feels hot with shame and annoyance and frustration and anger. He hails a cab almost immediately outside. He gets inside and it’s just starting to pull away when the door to the studio swings open again and Chanyeol rushes outside too late to catch him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOWOWOWOWOW!! Two chapters in ONE day. I really am just on a roll with writing right now. I figured if I had it finished I might as well post. I hope you like it~ :D


	19. Chapter Nineteen

Kyungsoo didn’t realize he’d told the cab driver the address of Loophole instead of his apartment until they pull up outside the club and Kyungsoo sees the line outside for people trying to get in. It’s still early on a Saturday night so the club is more packed than he thought it would be. It doesn’t matter though. He goes up to the bouncer and he lets him in no questions asked.

It takes Kyungsoo a while to find Yixing but eventually he does and Yixing’s smile brightens over the lit up bar when his eyes land on Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo tries to smile back but knows it’s more of a grimace.

Yixing frowns and comes out to talk to Kyungsoo dragging him to the back room first.

“Everything okay,” Yixing asks worry etched into his face once they’re in the quiet of the back room.

Kyungsoo nods, “Nothing some DJing won’t fix if you’ll have me.”

“Of course. You’re always welcome here. You know that. I’ll just go tell the other DJ he’s on break until further notice.”

“Are you sure it’s okay? I don’t want to trou-”

“Kyungsoo, it’s fine. I’ll still pay him so he should be fine.”

Kyungsoo nods again and follows Yixing up to the DJ booth. Yixing enters the booth and Kyungsoo waits on the steps outside trying to give Yixing some privacy with his employee. They seem to argue and Kyungsoo considers leaving but he really needs to lose himself in his music. He’s glad he decided to pocket his flash drive with new mixes on it this morning. He fingers the small rectangle through his pants. The regular DJ storms out of the booth and past Kyungsoo and Kyungsoo looks at Yixing who gives him a half smile and shrugs.

“He didn’t like that I took him off. I told him he’s lucky he still has a job after leaving me hanging that one time you showed up. It’s all yours,” Yixing says clapping Kyungsoo’s shoulder as he makes his way past him and down the stairs.

Kyungsoo enters the booth, reacquainting himself with the equipment before plugging his flash drive and loading up his remix of I’m Him by Sammie. Originally a smooth RnB ballad and now an upbeat club mix with melancholy undertones. He spends the next several hours there. He smoothly blends one club mix into the next.

He can feel his phone vibrate against his thigh several times but he ignores it. Favoring ignoring the world instead of facing it. Yixing keeps water coming up to the booth as Kyungsoo sweats out the day in the club that’s increasing in temperature slowly.

He eventually calls it quits around 1am, having DJed for a solid 5 hours his arms could really take much more. The other DJ comes back up, huffing about being paid to do nothing most of the night. Kyungsoo ignores him and makes his way back to his apartment in an exhausted daze, taking a cab because he knows he shouldn’t be on public transport at the moment.

Finally pulling out his phone, Kyungsoo can see a few texts from Jongin. Just asking how his special went and then when there was no reply if he was still mad. Kyungsoo ignored those. He had several texts from Baekhyun as well as a ton of missed calls and 2 voicemails. Kyungsoo rolls his eyes fondly.

Pressing his voicemail button, he holds the phone up to his ear the listen.

“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. Was that really? Oh my god. How did we not know? Call me back, asap.”

Kyungsoo smiles. He can always count on Baekhyun’s dramatics to make him smile at least. Kyungsoo deletes it and moves on to listen to the next one.

“Kyungsoo, are you okay? Seriously? I mean, I know you drop off the face of the Earth on the reg but I’m kind of worried here.”

Kyungsoo frowns. He’ll call Baekhyun in the morning. He deletes the message and looks out the window until they get to his apartment. He pays the cabbie in twenties, the few Yixing was able to slip into his pocket before he left, and gets out. He can’t wait to take a shower and fall into bed. He makes his way slowly up the steps to his apartment.

Kyungsoo nearly drops to the floor when he sees Chanyeol sitting there, leaning against Kyungsoo’s door asleep. Kyungsoo just wants to get into his apartment. Why does Chanyeol have to make everything inconvenient and hard?

“I don’t,” Chanyeol mumbles and sits up blinking awake. Kyungsoo didn’t realize he said that outloud.

“I can’t-” Kyungsoo groans. He doesn’t say anything else. Just turns around and books it back outside hoping his Taxi is still there. It’s not. He nearly runs to the El station arriving there breathless and able to get onto the train right before it leaves. He’s gasping.

He arrives at Baekhyun’s apartment about an hour later. He missed his first transfer stop and it made getting there a lot more difficult. He has to bang on the door for a solid five minutes before Baekhyun even answers.

“This better be impo-” Baekhyun cuts himself off the moment he sees Kyungsoo’s face. Still panicked, dried sweat making him look rumpled and exhausted.

“Get in here,” Baekhyun murmurs gently dragging Kyungsoo into his apartment. He shoves a towel in Kyungsoo’s arms and pushes him into the bathroom.

Half way through his shower he hears the door open and sees Baekhyun put clothes for him on the counter. Kyungsoo has never been more thankful for Baekhyun and how well the other knows him.

Kyungsoo steps out of the shower, dresses in the slightly too small pajama pants and t-shirt, and heads out into the living room. Baekhyun is sitting on the couch wrapped in a blanket. He pats the seat and blanket beside him and Kyungsoo wraps himself up and sits next to Baekhyun leaning against him.

“What happened? Walk me through it,” Baekhyun says. Kyungsoo pulls in a deep breath and tells him everything that happened from Chanyeol showing up as Phoenyx to him sleeping against his door. Baekhyun is almost unnervingly quiet while Kyungsoo talks.

“Baek, say something.”

“Kyungsoo, you gotta work out your feelings.”

“I know my feelings. It’s angry. And hurt. And generally annoyed.”

“There’s gotta be something more if Chanyeol is still affecting you like this. Aren’t you with Jongin right now? You shouldn’t be this hung up on a one night stand. Because let’s face it, aside from some nice camaraderie for a few weeks, you were a one night stand.”

Kyungsoo sits up abruptly.

“Thanks. I love being told I was just a fuck for someone,” Kyungsoo spits. Tears of frustration spilling down his cheeks. Baekhyun grabs the box of tissues from his side table and hands it to Kyungsoo.

“I’m not trying to be mean, Kyungsoo. But you need to be realistic. Obviously you still have feelings for him.”

“No I don’t.”

“You ran away from him because you couldn’t avoid talking to him. If it had been anyone else you’d have just opened your door, let them fall and then close the door on their head.”

Kyungsoo laughs at the image but goes quiet after leaning back against Baekhyun. Does he still have feelings for Chanyeol? He thought he was over it and just bitter at how it ended but maybe Baekhyun is right. He hates that Baekhyun is probably right. He glares up at Baekhyun. Baekhyun returns it with a bright, knowing smile.

“See. Some soul searching is good for all.”

“I’m not sure how good this will be for me,” Kyungsoo mumbles half asleep against Baekhyun’s shoulder.

“I’m not saying you have to do anything with the knowledge but knowing might help your reactions and how you deal with it. Where were you tonight anyway?”

“Loophole.”

“Ah, should have known.”

“You really should have. Let’s go to sleep.”

“Yea, come on. Do you want to sleep out here or cuddle in my bed? You seem attention starved.”

Kyungsoo doesn’t say anything. He hates admitting that sometimes he really does need to be cuddled, even if he generally doesn’t like being touched. Instead he stands up, walks into Baekhyun’s room, and flops on his bed.

“You shit. We have to be up in 3 hours for work,” Baekhyun says and flops next to him. Their version of friendship cuddling is sleeping with their limbs splayed over each other but it works for them and Kyungsoo falls asleep quickly. Less confused but more sad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It seems I update every two ish weeks or twice in two days. No inbetween. Lol. Oh well, lots of angst! but more friendship!baeksoo. :D Hope you enjoyed it. 


	20. Chapter Twenty

Kyungsoo and Baekhyun both groan when Baekhyun’s alarm goes off a few short hours later. Kyungsoo’s the first out of bed, preferring to actually try to look presentable while Baekhyun decides throwing on some work appropriate clothes and running his fingers through his hair is enough.

“Didn’t we promise ourselves we’d never let boys make our lives difficult,” Baekhyun grunts as he pours coffee into travel mugs for them both.

“Boys are the worst,” Kyungsoo mumbles back rubbing at his tired eyes trying to get them to wake up.

“You can say that again.”

Baekhyun throws on his jacket, hands the second mug to Kyungsoo, and they leave. Getting through the morning is difficult for them both. But they make it through, barely. Baekhyun can’t wait to go home and nap. He’s in the breakroom loading up on more coffee before attempting to go home when his phone rings.

“This is Baekhyun,” he says tiredly into the phone.

“This is Sehun,” Sehun mimes teasing Baekhyun. Baekhyun resists rolling his eyes.

“What’s up? I assume you have a reason for calling.”

“Yea, I won’t be able to make class tomorrow.”

“So,” Baekhyun interrupts pouring way more sugar than he should into his coffee.

“Yea, can we have a one on one today?”

“Today,” Baekhyun repeats, sleep deprivation making him stupid.

“Yea. In like an hour or so?”

“In an hour?”

“Stop repeating everything,” Sehun whines.

“Sorry. Just processing. You really don’t need to make it up-”

“Please. I just don’t want to fall behind again.”

Baekhyun can’t really fault Sehun for being a good student, it’s his own fault, well technically Kyungsoo’s, he’s so tired. So he sighs and begrudgingly says yes and that he’ll see Sehun at the dojo and hangs up.

“How’s that non-crush on Sehun going then,” Kyungsoo teases sitting at the table sipping at his own coffee.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Baekhyun glares at him, “Shouldn’t you be too tired to make fun of me?”

“Nothing could stop me from making fun of you, honestly,” Kyungsoo chirps back.

Baekhyun shakes his head, “How long are you sticking around?”

“I have to go over some things with Junmyeon in a bit so a while. Why?”

“Gonna sleep for like 20 minutes in here. Can you wake me up?”

“Yea.” Kyungsoo replies. Baekhyun doesn’t hesitate to lay his head on the table and rest his eyes. It feels simultaneously too soon and too late when Kyungsoo wakes him up exactly 20 minutes later on the dot. He rushes off to the EL station down the street and just misses the train he wanted to be on. The next one coming in 10 minutes.

Someone tall blocks Baekhyun from glaring at the screens showing how far each line is from arriving. He turns his half hearted glaring to the person only to realise it’s Chanyeol. The glare turns to full on, I’m gonna kill you glare.

“Are you Chanyeol,” he asks just to be sure. The guy turns around, eyes widening but he nods. Baekhyun wants to throttle him but Hapkido preaches using their skills as defense. So he takes a deep breath and decides to give him a verbal lashing instead.

“You’re an asshole.”

“What,” Chanyeol asks utterly bewildered.

“You heard me. What you did to Kyungsoo was not cool. You broke him. After you pretty much forced yourself into his life. I can’t believe you. Why can’t you just leave him the fuck alone?”

“I- Oh, uh.”

“And another thing, why do you keep randomly showing up, hmm? If you had a valid reason for basically fucking him and then ignoring him, which honestly the moon would have to be crashing into Earth for there to be a valid reason in my opinion, you’ve had plenty of time and chances to explain.”

“He’s never let me explain,” Chanyeol exclaims. He opens his mouth again but Baekhyun cuts him off.

“Either way, leave him the fuck alone. Do you know what state I found him in last night? Not a good one. He’s oblivious and weird and untrusting but he let you in for god knows what reason and it’s done nothing but harm.”

The train pulls up and Baekhyun steps on and says a final, “Leave him the fuck alone.”

Chanyeol stands there unmoving, but Baekhyun turns so he can’t see him and continues on his way. It felt good to get that off his chest. Kyungsoo would hate that he did that, but what he doesn’t know can’t hurt him, Baekhyun thinks.

He gets to the Dojo and dresses in the spare workout clothes he keeps there. Sehun isn’t there yet so he settles on the mats to nap until he comes. Someone’s poking his shoulder and Baekhyun whines in the back of his throat and barely opens his eyes. Sehun’s face is way to close he thinks as his eyes take in the perfectly shaped, dark eyebrows, concerned looking eyes, perfectly straight nose and plump lips.

“It’s too early for this,” Baekhyun grumbles.

“A little low energy today, huh,” Sehun teases sitting back and moving away from hovering over Baekhyun.

“Shuddup,” Baekhyun mumbles sitting up and rubbing at his eyes, “I didn’t get a lot of sleep.”

“Sounds like a you problem,” Sehun smirks.

“Run through the warm up you twat,” Baekhyun replies finally getting to his feet stretching his arms up in the air and releasing a groan from the nice stretch.

He looks over at Sehun and frowns, “You aren’t moving.” Sehun shakes his head and starts his warm up.

Sehun keeps teasing Baekhyun about being tired and Baekhyun dishes right back. It’s nice, even if Baekhyun would rather be at home asleep. Baekhyun spaces out about sleeping until Sehun is waving a hand in front of his face. Baekhyun snaps back to reality and forces his eyes to focus on Sehun who’d just finished saying something that Baekhyun didn’t catch.

“What?”

“I said you should probably just go home and sleep.”

“Haha, probably.”

Sehun’s smile falls into something serious.

“You know how you said I should just ask the person out because the worst they could say is no?”

Baekhyun nods, “Yea did you ask and it go horribly wrong or something?”

Sehun rolls his eyes but they soften and land on Baekhyun again.

“No, I’m trying to ask them out right now,” He says, face flat and lips pressed into a thin line of worry.

Baekhyun’s tired mind doesn’t quite catch onto Sehun’s meaning.

“Then why are you standing around here?”

“Baekhyun, really? I’m saying I want to take you on a date,” Sehun blurts.

Baekhyun’s brain short circuits, “Uh, yea. I’d, yea. Sure.”

Sehun’s face visibly brightens, “Really?”

Baekhyun nods and Sehun’s speaking faster than Baekhyun has ever heard him.

“Awesome. Wow, I didn’t think you’d say yes. I’ll text you details later, okay? I have to go.”

Baekhyun nods again brain still not quite caught up. It’s about five minutes after Sehun has left that he realizes he said yes to a date with Sehun and the panic sets in. He can’t remember the last time he went on a date where he actually worried about how it turns out but it’s slowly dawning on him that Kyungsoo isn’t the only oblivious one in their friendship because he definitely likes Sehun more than he thought he did. He wonders how he could just now realize it was himself Sehun was talking about that day in the cafe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yayayayay. Another update. :D things are slowly coming together for Baekhyun~ Also, sleepy Baeksoo is super cute. <3


	21. Chapter Twenty One

Kyungsoo’s meeting with Junmyeon takes way longer than he wanted it to. He doesn’t find himself on the blue line heading home until early afternoon. He sighs. He wants nothing more than to sleep but his talk with Baekhyun last night makes him want to resolve some things in his life. Instead of passing out when he gets home he picks up his phone, hand shaking slightly.

He hits the call button and takes a deep breath holding the phone to his ear. It rings a few times and then clicks over.

A deep sigh and then, “Hey, Soo.”

“Hi, Jongin,” Kyungsoo responds softly.

“I-”

“We-”

They both start and laugh awkwardly.

“Can I go first,” Jongin asks.

Kyungsoo hums his assent and Jongin takes a deep breath.

“I don’t think it’s working out.”

Kyungsoo almost wants to laugh in relief, “I was going to say the same thing.”

“It’s embarrassing to admit but I think I was more into the idea of you. Baekhyun always talked you up. And then I kind of built upon it.”

Kyungsoo nods even though Jongin can’t see it.

“I just didn’t want to be lonely,” Kyungsoo murmurs, “I’m sorry. You didn’t deserve this.”

“I’m sorry too. Friends?”

“Sure. So who’s going to tell Baekhyun,” Kyungsoo asks to lighten the mood. Jongin laughs loudly and Kyungsoo smiles.

“I’ll leave that to you. He was so happy his matchmaking worked out.”

“Rude,” Kyungsoo replies fondly.

“I’ve got to go, work and such. Bye, Kyungsoo.”

“Goodbye.”

Kyungsoo sighs in relief. It was surprisingly easier than he thought it would be. He’s glad Jongin felt the same way. One thing in his life resolved, Kyungsoo decides he’s earned the nap he so desperately wants. He begrudgingly sets an alarm that he knows will go off way too early and falls asleep almost instantly.

He wakes up disorientated and confused. He checks his phone and sees he still has half an hour so he’s not sure what woke him until the doorbell for his apartment goes off again. He decides to ignore it. But it rings a third and fourth time so he pulls himself from bed and checks out the peephole in his door. It’s Chanyeol.

He’s not ready for this. He’s tired and sleep rumpled and would rather do anything else. But Baekhyun’s voice pops into his mind saying he needs the closure if nothing else. Kyungsoo takes a deep breath and opens the door.

“Chanyeol, h-”

Chanyeol doesn’t say anything. He just steps past Kyungsoo into the apartment and starts pacing in front of Kyungsoo’s couch. Kyungsoo slowly closes the door and makes his way to sit on the couch sighing with the effort. Chanyeol finally stops pacing and looks at Kyungsoo though he doesn’t sit down.

“Why have you been avoiding me,” Chanyeol demands, “I thought we just weren’t running into each other and that you weren’t home when I rang your doorbell before but after the show and at your door you fled.”

“You rang my doorbell before,” Kyungsoo asks getting caught on details.

“Yea. It doesn’t matter. I get that you don’t want to talk about it. You think I’ve done something super shitty and I haven’t done a very good job of communicating things to you or explaining but still. Also, it doesn’t give you permission to set your friends on me.”

“Set my friend’s on you,” Kyungsoo’s exhausted brain is having a hard time keeping up with Chanyeol, “What are you talking about?”

“Baekhyun? I think that’s his name, he very dramatically yelled at me to leave you alone today on the El platform.”

Kyungsoo makes a mental note to talk to Baekhyun about that but says to Chanyeol, “I didn’t tell Baek to do anything. He’s his own man and my best friend.”

“I guess. You still haven’t answered my question. Why were you avoiding me?”

Steadying himself, he makes a decision to just tell him. What’s the worst that can happen? Chanyeol already hurt him. It might help to get his feelings on the table.

“I...I like you a lot. A lot more than I probably should,” he mumbles looking out the window of his apartment instead of at Chanyeol.

“It hurts because I thought you liked me too. I mean you showed up at my apartment all the time. And I’m not exactly...forthcoming...with my emotions but I thought it was obvious. I let you in and we even had sex. So then I saw you with all those people and you didn’t even try to explain.”

Chanyeol doesn't say anything. He sits down on the other couch against the windows. Kyungsoo stares down at his hands. He knows he’s just laid a lot of information on Chanyeol and he tries to patiently wait as the other processes. But 10 minutes go by and Kyungsoo is too tired for this.

“So?”

Chanyeol shrugs, “I don’t know. I-Jeez, Kyungsoo.” Chanyeol rubs his hand down his face, “You never let me explain. I tried knocking and ringing your doorbell several times but you never answered.”

“I probably wasn’t here.”

Chanyeol scoffed, “Yea, right. I know you’re a homebody.”

Kyungsoo rolls his eyes, “Do you think I’d just wait around for you to explain? I didn’t want to be here so I wasn’t.”

“Please you were ignoring me today until I got too insistent for you to ignore,” Chanyeol accuses.

“I’m too tired for this,” Kyungsoo groans, “I was napping. I got 3 hours of sleep last night. I didn’t want to get out of bed and assumed you were Baekhyun. I just told you I liked you and all you can say is I don’t know.”

Chanyeol doesn’t respond. He looks deep in thought. Kyungsoo almost regrets telling him.A small voice telling him he should have just let it be.

Kyungsoo sighs running his fingers through his hair, “Leave Chanyeol. You obviously need to process and I need to sleep.”

Chanyeol nods and sees himself out the door without another word. Kyungsoo wishes Chanyeol would have stayed. Talked it out. But Kyungsoo goes back to his bed and grabs his phone to call Baekhyun.

“Fuck you,” Baekhyun answers groggily.

“I hate you.”

“Why this time,” Baekhyun yawns.

“I told Chanyeol I like him.”

“What,” Baekhyun demands suddenly alert.

“I told him I liked him and it was decidedly anti climactic. He didn’t really respond. I think he needs time to process. And he still hasn’t explained.”

“That’s good…?”

“Maybe. I feel better to have it off my chest. I broke up with Jongin, too.”

Baekhyun sighs, “It was inevitable, I guess. Can I go back to sleep now?”

“One more thing, you shouldn’t have yelled at Chanyeol.”

Baekhyun laughs, “He told you then. Tattle tale. I’m your best friend. I’m allowed to chew out the guy who broke your heart and stomped on it.”

“Thanks, Baek. But I can handle myself.”

“Yea sure. I’m going back to bed now.”

Kyungsoo laughs and hangs up. Nothing with Chanyeol has been fixed but he feels better now that he thinks about it. His feelings are out and he feels a weight lifted from his chest. Even if Chanyeol doesn’t like him back, he has no regrets at least.

Chanyeol never directly explained either but he could gather enough from the interview. He can see how from Chanyeol’s point of view he didn’t really do anything wrong. Today is a day of discoveries for Kyungsoo it seems. He sets a new alarm and goes back to sleep.

The rest of the week passes uneventfully for Kyungsoo and he’s glad. He’s not sure he could handle any more drama in his life. It feels like it’s finally stabilizing and going back to how it was before. Kyungsoo isn’t sure he likes that but at least it’s familiar and easy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long. I've been busy lately. Anyway, I hope you liked it!
> 
> Now for some shameless self promotion. I've started a youtube based on kpop. It'll have informative videos, song reviews, and other kpop related things! Here's my first video if you're interested. :D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVKjls15LhI


	22. Chapter Twenty Two

Kyungsoo gets home Friday after work and hunkers down for a relaxing night in. He’s excited to get back to his routine, something he knows Baekhyun would be horrified at, but he opens his book club book and settles in. He’s about halfway through his book when there’s knocking at his door. He’s debating just ignoring it.

“Open up,” Baekhyun calls through door. Kyungsoo rolls his eyes and stands up to open his door.

“Reading, on a Friday night. Typical,” Baekhyun scoffs. He’s dressed to impress and Kyungsoo is already dreading what he knows is coming. Baekhyun just pushes passed Kyungsoo, heading for his closet.

Kyungsoo follows him and leans against his bed while Baekhyun rummages through his clothes before deciding on something and handing it to Kyungsoo.

“Come on. We’re going clubbing. We’re gonna get absolutely shitfaced and dance our asses off.” Kyungsoo opens hi mouth but Baekhyun cuts him off, “No buts. I need this and you could use some fun. Say we’re celebrating your new singledom.”

Kyungsoo sighs but gets dressed and then lets Baekhyun attack his hair pushing it up and out of his face and then dousing it with at least a gallon of hairspray.

“Perfect,” Baekhyun exclaims, “Let’s go.”

He grabs Kyungsoo by the wrist and physically drags him out of the apartment. Kyungsoo rolls his eyes but decides to be a good sport. Baekhyun’s a great friend and Kyungsoo knows he could be better so he smiles and lets Baekhyun drag him almost all the way to the club.

“The Loophole,” Kyungsoo questions. It’s not usually the kind of place Baekhyun would go to.

“Yea. Well. It’s got a dance floor. I’m dragging you out, may as well take you someplace I know you like.”

Kyungsoo narrows his eyes at Baekhyun, “You just want free drinks from Yixing.”

Laughing, Baekhyun says, “And we can get in easily. You read me like a book.”

Kyungsoo shakes his head but smiles. He goes up to the bouncer and he lets him and Baekhyun in without a word.

“Kyunsgoo,” Yixing shouts over the bar, “You’re not here to…?”

“No. I’m actually here to get drunk and dance according to this one,” Kyungsoo shouts back and points at Baekhyun who’s scoping out the dance floor.

Yixing’s dimpled smile gains a mischievous quality, “Get drunk you say? I can definitely help with that. Try this new drink I made. It’s got 5 different kinds of liquor.”

Kyungsoo is about to deny it and ask for wine but Baekhyun speaks over him, “Two please and keep them coming.”

“Baek!”

“I meant what I said about getting shit faced, Kyungsoo. I don’t play.”

Kyungsoo sighs but what’s done is done. Yixing started making them as he was talking and he knows between the two he’s not getting out of here anywhere close to sober. So he takes the drink when Yixing hands it to him and gulps down half. He instantly regrets his decision because then Baekhyun whoops beside him and yells, “Chug!”

Kyungsoo grimaces but continues drinking until the glass is empty. Yixing whistles lowly and takes the glass.

“Your turn,” Kyungsoo smiles evilly.

Baekhyun’s smile widens and he also downs the glass. Then he grabs Kyungsoo’s wrist again and drags him to the dance floor. The cycle continues. They dance for about 10 minutes, get a drink, down it and go back to dancing until about the 5th time. They come back from dancing and Kyungsoo plops on a stool at the end of the bar.

“Nothing can make me move from this stool. Besides the possibility of me falling off of it. But that’s a very small possibility. Maybe. If the world stops spinning.”

Baekhyun laughs loudly beside him and almost falls off his own stool into Kyungsoo but manages to catch himself.

“You’re right. We should take a break.”

“Of course I’m right,” Kyungsoo mutters but he’s smiling.

“So, uh, I have something to say…” Baekhyun says beside him and Kyungsoo pointedly doesn’t look at him. He knows Baekhyun will stall out if Kyungsoo looks so he stares down at his drink that he’s decided to sip instead of chug. A few minutes go by before Baekhyun finally gets on with it.

“Sehun asked me out and I said yes,” he says it quickly, all in one breath.

“And,” Kyungsoo asks and looks over at Baekhyun finally. He raises an eyebrow. Baekhyun stares back slack jawed.

“And what? I said yes! The kid has been nothing but a pain in my ass since day one.”

“So? You like that. You told me yourself that he’s grown on you. You enjoy your one on ones with him. I even pointed out that it sounded like he liked you. What is the problem? Other than me having told you so?”

Baekhyun rolls his eyes, “I don’t know. I really like him.”

“So,” Kyungsoo says trying to work it out, “Oh I see.”

“You do, because I sure as hell don’t?”

“Baek, when’s the last time you dated someone other than to get laid and go to clubs?”

“I do not date just to get laid and go to clubs,” Baekhyun immediately objects. Kyungsoo doesn’t say anything just lets Baekhyun ponder.

“Oh my god you’re right,” Baekhyun groans dropping his head to the bar top. Kyungsoo grimaces at the pool of mysterious liquid Baekhyun’s hair flopped into. He grabs a napkin and wipes his hair and then the counter before replying.

“Yea I know. You’re worried because you actually have feelings for him.”

Baekhyun turns his head away from Kyungsoo and mumbles, “I hate you.”

Kyungsoo laughs under his breath and continues drinking. He finishes it and Baekhyun is still sulking against the bar. So Kyungsoo grabs his wrist and drags him to the dance floor. Obviously this is what Baekhyun needed because his smile is almost instantaneous and they dance and drink more.

They leave when Yixing yells last call with the arms around each other both using the other to stay standing. They sing drunkenly as they make the short walk back to Baekhyun’s flat. Several people tell them to shut up but Kyungsoo is so happy and drunk he can’t be bothered. He finally realizes why Baekhyun likes to do this with him. It’s fun if you’re with the right person. The get back to Baekhyun’s apartment and both crash on his bed and fall asleep without a second thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long!! I got hecka sick and I've barely gotten off my couch in the last week or so. But here, some fluffy friendship!Baeksoo. My fave kind. As always, thoughts, comments, concerns?
> 
> Also some more shameless self promotion. I've uploaded part 2 of the video I linked to previously. You can watch it here: https://youtu.be/xQpCP2Pf3eY


	23. Chapter Twenty three

Baekhyun wakes up and groans. His mouth is dry as a dessert in the middle of the day and his head is pounding just behind his eyes. He can’t believe he drank that much. It’s been a long time since he was that drunk and probably even longer since Kyungsoo was that drunk.

He’s trying to peel his eyes open when he remembers. Today is the day he’s going on a date with Sehun. Panic floods his stomach and he sits up. Not a good idea, his stomach protests and he has to sit still so he doesn’t puke. He folds over his legs and sits with his head between his stretched out knees.

“You’re weirdly flexible,” Kyungsoo croaks beside him. Baekhyun turns his head and watches Kyungsoo slowly sit up.

“Shuddup,” Baekhyun mumbles.

Kyungsoo throws his feet over the bed and gets up. Baekhyun turns his head back between his knees and tries not to throw up from the combination of panic and hangover. He hears Kyungsoo come back to the room but doesn’t sit up until he lightly slaps his shoulder.

“What? Can’t you see I’m in mourning.”

“Stop being so damn dramatic, it’s a hangover. We’ve definitely had worse ones before.”

Baekhyun sighs and sits up almost knocking the water Kyungsoo is holding out to him out of his hand. Kyungsoo moves his arm just in time and a little spills onto the bed.

Baekhyun takes it gratefully and slurps half of it down in one gulp.

“You take such good care of me,” Baekhyun says.

“Yea, a lot of good it does me,” Kyungsoo teases. Kyungsoo walks away and Baekhyun whines loudly. He can almost hear Kyungsoo roll his eyes but he can’t see his face. Kyungsoo turns slightly.

“What?”

“Today’s my date with Sehun.”

“And?”

“AND! I’m completely freaking out here.”

“Oh. I thought you were being a little overdramatic for a hangover.”

“Kyungsoo,” Baekhyun whines and flips backwards on the bed immediately regretting it as the water tries to fight it’s way out of his churning stomach. He forces it back down but decides to be dramatic while also remaining relatively still.

Kyungsoo sighs, “Baek, it’s gonna be fine. Just be yourself. Don’t try to be the suave guy who picks up guys in clubs. Be the guy Sehun likes. The asshole who teases but has a tender heart and can be serious and dramatic at the same time.”

Baekhyun presses a pillow into his face and mumbles, “Asshole. I know that.”

“Then what’s the issue?”

“I really like him.”

“You’re point being…?”

“So! I really like him. What if he doesn’t really like me?”

“Then he’s an idiot and we have another movie and ice cream night and move on. Stay in here or don’t. I’m gonna make hangover pancakes and bacon.”

Baekhyun sighs to himself and lays there for a while longer until the smell of Kyungsoo’s cooking finally drags him from bed. Kyungsoo and Baekhyun eat breakfast in relative silence both struggling to keep the food in their stomach.

“Never getting that drunk again,” Kyungsoo mumbles.

“I thought it wasn’t the worst hangover we’ve had,” Baekhyun replies.

“It’s not. But we’re old and everything hurts.”

“Speak for yourself. I’m young and spry.”

Kyungsoo snorts and flicks a piece of bacon at Baekhyun. Baekhyun grabs it from where it landed on his cheek and shoves it in his mouth. Kyungsoo just shakes his head and continues eating.

“Since you’re here you have to help me get ready. Don’t even think of sneaking off while I’m in the shower or I will bring my entire closet to your apartment.”

Baekhyun stares at Kyungsoo to make sure he’s properly horrified before getting up from the table and hopping in the shower. When he comes out, Kyungsoo has just finished cleaning up the mess from breakfast and he dutifully follows Baekhyun into the bedroom.

Baekhyun proceeds to try on no less than seven different outfits. All of which Kyungsoo says look great.

Baekhyun groans, “Kyungsoo, you’re no help at all.”

“I could have told you that.”

“Ugh. well I’m between the leather jacket and black skinny jeans and just the simple t-shirt with cardigan and blue skinny jeans. Which one will go better with tall, blond and handsome?”

Kyungsoo rubs his forehead, “I don’t know. The cardigan.”

“Why?”

“Baek,” Kyungsoo finally whines, “I’m the epitome of dad fashion please stop asking me.”

Baekhyun snorts and shakes his head. It’s a day date and he thinks the leather, while flattering, would be a little much so he does eventually get back in the cardigan outfit.

“I guess you can leave now. I just have to do my hair.”

“What time are you meeting him?”

“2pm at that little bistro down the street from the studio.”

“Oh I heard that place is good.”

“Me too.”

“Baek,” Kyungsoo says softly and Baekhyun looks up from where he’s pulling at his t-shirt to make sure it’s not sitting on his waist in a weird way, “You deserve this, okay? Sehun seems perfect for you and I’m sure the date will go well. Call me if you need me.”

Kyungsoo stands to leave and Baekhyun wraps him in a hug. Kyungsoo squeezes back and then steps away.

“Thank you.”

“Anytime,” Kyungsoo smiles and leaves Baekhyun alone in his apartment with two hours to kill before he’s supposed to meet up with Sehun.

To keep his mind distracted he boots up his PS4 and starts a round of Overwatch. He doesn’t play as often as he’d like but he’s steadily climbing the ranks. He gets two rounds in before he has to leave and he feels more relaxed for it. The entire CTA ride Baekhyun is wracked with nerves but the feeling of panic has finally subsided. Kyungsoo is right. He deserves this. He deserves to be happy.

Baekhyun walks up to the bistro and Sehun is leaning against building next to the door scrolling through his phone. Baekhyun lets his eyes wander from the perfectly dyed blond hair to his perfect and broad shoulders covered in a nice grey peacoat with a artsy graphic T-shirt underneath and dark teal pants that stick to his legs like glue. Baekhyun’s mouth is watering just looking at him.

“Hey,” he calls out to stop his drooling and walks the last few steps to be standing in front of Sehun. Sehun straightens to his full height, a small, shy smile playing at his lips.

“Hey.”

They stare at each other. It’s not awkward. Just a quiet moment between them and Baekhyun has a good feeling about Sehun and this date and his future. The world seems to be in his grasp. He cuts his thoughts off, they’re getting a little dramatic and sappy even for him. He smiles.

“Ready to go in then?”

Sehun nods and opens the door for Baekhyun motioning with his hand for Baekhyun to go first. He walks through. The bistro is cute. Small, but not loud or cramped. The menu is done up in chalk instead of printed and there’s a bunch of fancy machines behind the counter and Baekhyun is pretty sure this is his new favorite place.

They order food and sit down. Sehun pulls off his peacoat and Baekhyun tries not to let his eyes roam over the very obvious muscle definition on Sehun’s arms and chest but he can’t help it.

“Like what you see,” Sehun teases.

“A little too much,” Baekhyun replies tossing off his own coat to reveal the cardigan and white t-shirt. He sees Sehun do a double glance and he smirks.

“Like what you see,” Baekhyun asks.

“Wouldn’t be on this date, if I didn’t? I like seeing you out of your practicing gear,” Sehun replies. He’s staring intently at his plate and blush has spread up his neck and into his cheeks. Baekhyun is a complete goner.

The date goes well. They talk about their interests and learn they have more in common than just hapkido and in between they flirt relentlessly; teasing each other and tossing suggestive comments. Baekhyun’s pretty sure it’s the best date he’s ever been on and it was just a little lunch date.

They’ve been done with eating for half an hour, but Baekhyun didn’t want it to end. But the bistro is getting more and more crowded, the noise level going up, and Baekhyun’s not sure he can stay there much longer.

Sehun stands up though and he panics slightly again. This is where Sehun says he just doesn’t feel it he knows it. Sehun puts on his jacket and Baekhyun stands up and follows suit. Sehun doesn’t say anything though. It makes knots in Baekhyun’s full stomach.

Sehun smiles sweetly at Baekhyun once he’s all bundled up and then grabs Baekhyun’s hand and pulls him out of the cafe. Walking with purpose, though to where, Baekhyun isn’t sure. Eventually they end up in a small park in the middle of the city.

The trees are all hibernating for the winter but it’s been a mild winter and the grass is still mostly green. The park is deserted. Sehun slows his pace so they’re now meandering but doesn’t let go of Baekhyun’s hand.

“Is this okay? I thought a walk would be good to talk but get out of the bistro. It was getting a little stuffy.”

Baekhyun realizes he’s found the perfect person. They meander around the park several times. Talking about nothing and everything. Baekhyun never thought he’d be the kind of person to walk around holding hands with someone he liked and being thrilled about it. Usually his palms are too sweaty or the other person’s palms are too sweaty and his hand gets overly moist and warm. But with Sehun it fits perfectly and his hand is warm but dry.

Sehun stops them by the front of the park, “I have to go. I promised my mom I’d have dinner with her.”

Baekhyun tries not to pout but nods.

“Can we have another date?”

“Of course!,” Baekhyun replies and then silently curses himself for seeming too eager. Sehun doesn't seem to care though. His smile widens.

“How about tomorrow? There’s a new club I want to check out. Come with me?”

“I’ll be there.”

“I’ll pick you up at 9. Text me your address.”

“Okay.”

They stare at each other still holding hands. Sehun smiles softly again and leans down to place a soft, chaste kiss on Baekhyun’s lips. He sighs into it but Sehun pulls away before he can deepen it.

“Any more and I won’t leave. You don’t want to make a bad impression on my mother already, do you,” Sehun teases. He places one more kiss to Baekhyun’s cheek, whispers goodbye, and walks away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SORRY!! I know this took forever. I just have not had a lot of inspiration to write. but it struck today. I hope you liked it. ;)


	24. Chapter Twenty four

Kyungsoo walks into his empty apartment and everything feels off. Normally he’d be overjoyed to spend the day alone doing whatever and knowing Baekhyun wouldn’t come and drag him away from what he decided to do for the day. But it doesn’t feel right.

The past few months have been more action packed and full of more social interaction than he’s used to getting in a year. He didn’t realize he’d sealed himself off so completely from society but dating Jongin and being around more for Baekhyun and even having Chanyeol force his way into his life makes going back to his old life feel empty.

He drops his keys in the dish he keeps by the door for them and sighs dropping onto the couch. The book he was reading yesterday sits open on the arm rest but just looking at it makes him not want to read. He puts the bookmark in and closes it.

Kyungsoo’s ripped from his rather distressing thoughts by the doorbell sounding through his apartment. He jumps and looks at the door. Not sure who he hopes to see there when he peeks through the peephole.

“Jongdae,” Kyungsoo questions, eyes wide.

“Please, please, please, please, please!”

Kyungsoo stares at him, face blank, “Please what?”

“Please do something about Chanyeol. He’s acting weird and driving me crazy.”

Jongdae invites himself in and plops onto Kyungsoo’s couch. Kyungsoo sighs and closes the door and sits on the other couch to look at Jongdae.

“He keeps asking me for advice and when he’s not he’s just talking to himself,” Jongdae uses air quotes, “If he’s not bemoaning losing his chance with you, then he’s beating himself up for letting you hang on so long. I need it to end.”

“Jongdae-”

“Please Kyungsoo, I can’t take it anymore.”

“If Chanyeol really wanted me that badly he’d be here himself,” Kyungsoo says firmly. He’s done being a doormat. He might miss Chanyeol. He still feels a sharp pang in his heart but he laid his feeling on the table and Chanyeol ran away.

“I laid my feelings out for him plainly. I’m not going to do it again just to appease you. It’s his turn.”

“You sound like a child,” Jongdae says flatly.

“Says the one begging me to solve his problems,” Kyungsoo snaps back. Jongdae holds up his hands and looks away biting at his lip.

“You’re right. Sorry. I just. I think he really likes you and he’s afraid he fucked it up for good.”

“Yea, well,” Kyungsoo says pulling at a loose thread on his shirt, “I don’t know about that, but he might soon.”

They fall silent. Both looking anywhere but at each other. Finally Jongdae stands up.

“I should go,” Jongdae turns toward the door.

“Jongdae?”

He turns around and looks at Kyungsoo.

“If it helps tell him...Tell him it’s not too late yet.”

Jongdae nods and lets himself out of the apartment. Kyungsoo flops back against the cushions of and sighs again.

His time with Chanyeol was only about a month and yet not having him around is still weird. Chanyeol completely and seamlessly inserted himself into Kyungsoo’s life and then was ripped out of it. Kyungsoo rubs a hand down his face. He still has a headache and the last thing he wants to do is think about Chanyeol. Kyungsoo stands up, stretches his arms into the air and heads to his bedroom for a nap. He really needs to stop going out at night with Baekhyun.

Kyungsoo’s woken up from his nap once again by his doorbell ringing incessantly. Sleep rumpled and cranky, Kyungsoo opens the door without looking and almost gets hit in the face by Chanyeol’s fist. Chanyeol pulls back at the last second looking startled.

“Sorry, I was going to try knocking.”

Kyungsoo doesn’t say anything. He walks away from the door, leaving it open for Chanyeol to follow, and goes into the kitchen to make coffee. He has a feeling he’s going to need it. Chanyeol sheepishly follows him and sits down at the kitchen table to watch Kyungsoo. It’s quiet as Kyungsoo goes through the motions of making coffee.

“Do you want a cup,” Kyungsoo asks not looking at Chanyeol.

“No, coffee winds me up too much and I’m already too wound up,” Chanyeol replies fidgeting with the sleeves of his sweater.

Kyungsoo nods and stands by the coffee pot waiting for it to finish. Kyungsoo can see Chanyeol continuing to fidget in the chair but he needs coffee too much to not let him squirm. When he finally has his coffee, doctored up with some cream and a touch of cold water to make it drinkable, he sits down across from Chanyeol at the table and glances at him. He suddenly feels smaller but tries not to think about it.

Chanyeol bites at his lip and takes a deep breath, “Kyungsoo. I’m sorry.”

Kyungsoo’s eyes widen and he brings his gaze up from his mug to look at chanyeol.

Kyungsoo clears his throat, “I’m sorry, too.”

“No let me finish. I was an idiot. I forget people don’t always understand what I’m about and I don’t remember to give explanations. I’m very bad at it. I thought you new about the video. I thought in all the hanging out we did I told you. But I thought back and well...no...I didn’t.”

Kyungsoo opens his mouth but Chanyeol holds up a finger.

“Please. I need to get this out,” Chanyeol says. Kyungsoo nods.

“Once you started avoiding me I thought...I was mad.” Chanyeol starts speaking faster, Kyungsoo has to strain to keep up, “I thought you should have just understood. And then after you did finally get an explanation you were still upset and avoiding me and it made me even angrier. It wasn’t a good response. Jongdae is constantly reprimanding me about it. I just. It was stupid and we both, I think,” he says looking a little sheepish, “need to work on communication with each other. So here I am communicating.”

Kyungsoo nods and murmurs, “yea. We do need to work on that.”

Chanyeol smiles and taps out a rhythm on the table.

“I guess,” he continues, “what I’m trying to say is that I’m sorry. Jongdae...Jongdae said it wasn’t too late. Was he right?”

“Yea. He’s right,” Kyungsoo replies with a small smile. Chanyeol grins.

“So, we can start over?”

“I’d like that.”

“Date!”

“What?”

“Let’s go on a date,” Chanyeol exclaims eyes bright.

“Okay. When?”

“Tonight. Say 7pm?”

“It’s Sunday.”

“Right. You have to get up early. Tomorrow at 4,” Chanyeol replies biting at his lip again.

“Sounds perfect. What are we gonna do?”

“You’ll see,” Chanyeol replies. He stands up and looks at Kyungsoo nervousness etched around his eyes again, “Um, can we hug?”

Kyungsoo resists the urge to roll his eyes and stands up wrapping his arms around Chanyeol’s waist. Chanyeol’s hugs are as enthusiastic and hyper as the man himself. Chanyeol’s arms wrap completely around Kyungsoo’s shoulders and he squeezes lightly lifting Kyungsoo off the ground until Kyungsoo groans and he puts him back on his feet again. He gives one more squeeze before stepping back.

Kyungsoo already misses Chanyeol’s hug and he realizes he’s such a goner. Chanyeol leaves and Kyungsoo suddenly doesn’t seem to dissatisfied with doing nothing for the rest of the day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're in the final stretch. There's two more chapters left. I know I can't believe it. Anyway, I hope you liked this one. As always, thoughts, comments, concerns?


	25. Chapter Twenty Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Small note, this is super unedited. Please keep that in mind. I wanted to get it up ASAP.

Monday morning has Kyungsoo pacing in the break room sipping on his coffee half an hour before he’s supposed to go on air. He’s never been this nervous or excited before a date. Baekhyun appears in the doorway but stops half way in looking at Kyungsoo. Baekhyun blinks the sleep from his eyes, shakes his head, and looks at Kyungsoo again.

“It’s too early for this,” he mumbles and walks to the coffee pot. He pours his cup of coffee and leans against the counter facing Kyungsoo taking a long sip and sighing.

“Alright what’s bothering you,” he asks and takes another sip.

Kyungsoo finally stops pacing and says, “I have a date with Chanyeol.”

Baekhyun gasps into his cough and starts coughing. When he finally recovers all he can do is stare at Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo stares back.

“Explain.”

So Kyungsoo does. Using the precious minutes before they go on air to tell Baekhyun about Jongdae and then Chanyeol both appearing at his apartment the day before when they should be prepping for the show.

“Honestly, Soo, I don’t see the problem.”

“Don’t see the problem? I’m so nervous I can barely think straight.”

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why are you nervous? You’ve hung out with Chanyeol before and you got on just fine. The date won’t be any different.”

“Except now we have all this bad air between us.”

“Look, it’s gonna be fine. I’ll come over and help you get ready. I’m sure it’ll be amazing and I’ll kick Chanyeol’s ass if he hurts you again. It’s all good.”

Kyungsoo gives a breathy, exasperated laugh and nods.

“Yea, okay. You’re right.”

“You guys are on in 5,” Junmyeon says from the doorway. They look up at him but he’s gone already. They somehow cram 15 minutes of prep into 5 minutes and carry on the broadcast.

“So where are you guys going? You never mentioned,” Baekhyun asks as they pack up and head outside.

“He won’t tell me. He just said, you’ll see. Very ominous,” Kyungsoo shakes his head, though he can’t help a small smile.

“More like romantic. I’ll make sure I dress you in something that can work both casually and somewhat fancy.”

Kyungsoo rolls his eyes but he’s never been more thankful for Baekhyun than at that moment. He hadn’t even began to worry about what to wear or how to do his hair.

The commute to his apartment passes quickly with Baekhyun and he’s soon walking into his apartment with Baekhyun on his heels.

“What time did he say,” Baekhyun asks, already heading to Kyungsoo’s closet.

“Four.”

“Oh perfect, we have plenty of time then. I’m gonna pick out your outfit. Get in the shower.”

“What? Why? I showered this morning.”

“Yea, but it’ll be easier to do the pushed up thing after it’s freshly washed. Just do it,” Baekhyun says poking his head out of Kyungsoo’s closet to glare at him.

Kyungsoo rolls his eyes but dutifully heads off to take a shower. Baekhyun has him dressed in an all black, casual but easy to dress up outfit with his hair perfectly coiffed by 2. Baekhyun stands back after spraying Kyungsoo’s hair with hairspray one last time and smiles to himself.

“I’ve really outdone myself. Take that suit jacket with you and voila, your outfit is instant fancy.”

Kyungsoo smiles back, “Thanks, Baek. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Baekhyun gasps and clutches his chest, huge grin growing bigger, “A genuine compliment from Kyungsoo. I just might faint.” Baekhyun brings the back of his hand to his forehead with a flourish and leans back.

“Yea, and it’s the last time, asshole.”

“I do so love the pet names you give me. Anyway, you’ve got a couple of hours. Want to watch a movie?”

Kyungsoo rubs his hands down the front of his thighs and licks his lips, “Uh, I don’t know if I could sit still.”

Baekhyun nods, “Overwatch it is, good thing my laptop’s in my bag.”

Kyungsoo groans but grabs his own PC laptop and sits next to Baekhyun on the couch. He’s not one for playing really but Baekhyun made him buy the game. He plays only when Baekhyun asks and he’s terrible but he can admit it’s kind of fun. It’s a good way to kill time at least. Before Kyungsoo knows it, it’s 15 minutes until 4 and Baekhyun is packing up.

“Call me later. Tell me everything.”

Kyungsoo sighs, “You’ll see me tomorrow.”

“Let me rephrase, if you don’t call me later we aren’t friends,” Baekhyun grins cheekily. Kyungsoo shakes his head but nods his agreement and shoos Baekhyun out the door.

Kyungsoo paces around his apartment waiting for Chanyeol to ring his doorbell. Baekhyun worked well as a distraction but without him here all the what ifs and anxiety of the date are flooding back. He jumps when the doorbell finally rings and Kyungsoo all but runs to the door to open it.

Chanyeol is standing there smiling softly looking down and to the side. He holds out a bouquet of white flowers that Kyungsoo instantly loves. He grabs them and smiles up at Chanyeol. Nervousness suddenly gone seeing how nervous Chanyeol looks.

“Thank you,” Kyungsoo says, voice soft. Chanyeol finally glances at him and his smile widens.

“You’re welcome.”

Kyungsoo grabs the flowers and sets them on his desk figuring he can put them in water later and walks out of his apartment closing the door behind him. Chanyeol steps away from the door and looks at Kyungsoo raising an eyebrow like he’s considering something and glances up and down.

“What,” Kyungsoo asks looking down at his clothes to make sure he didn’t somehow manage to stain them.

“You look amazing. I was just...Nevermind,” Chanyeol says and shakes his head. He takes a deep breath and grabs Kyungsoo’s hand and starts leading him out of the apartment.

They make small talk as they get on the El and head towards the loop. It’s nice and easy going like falling right back to where their relationship should have been had the music video not messed everything up.

They get off at the Clarke and Lake station and Chanyeol leads Kyungsoo up to the river. This time of year, late winter early spring, the river walk isn’t as crowded as it gets in the summer. Chanyeol takes the steps at State street down to the under bridge walkway pulling Kyungsoo along with him.

“So what exactly are we doing,” Kyungsoo asks pulling his jacket tighter around him in a hopeless effort to block the wind.

Chanyeol stops and helps Kyungsoo zip up the jacket so it stops flapping open. He readjusts Kyungsoo’s scarf so it better covers his neck and then steps to the side to block the wind.

“I figured we’d walk along the river and then stop at Cyrano’s Cafe and Wine bar. I remember you saying you really like wine when we hung. I didn’t think it’d be this chilly by the river though,” Chanyeol replies glaring at the river.

Kyungsoo grabs Chanyeol’s hand, a small smile he can’t stop pulling at his lips.

“I’ll be okay. How far is it from here?”

“Like 2 and a half blocks. It’s just past Michigan Ave.”

Kyungsoo nods and pulls on Chanyeol’s hand to get them walking. They start at a leisurely pace but the cold starts to sink into both of them and they’re speed walking so fast they can’t talk by the time they get there. Chanyeol holds the door open for Kyungsoo and then they’re both encased in warmth.

“Note to self, the river walk is empty this time of year for a reason,” Chanyeol mutters and Kyungsoo laughs before turning to take in the cafe. It’s on the small side, Kyungsoo would call it intimate with candles on dark red tables and low lighting. The walls are a soft creamy color that reminds him of what he think a cafe in Italy would look like and instantly Kyungsoo loves the place.

“This is perfect,” he tells Chanyeol and squeezes his hand. They’re seated quickly and handed menus. The waitress tells them the specials and then hands the Wine menu to Chanyeol.

Chanyeol glances at it and immediately hands it to Kyungsoo, “You’re the wine person. Let me know what you want and we’ll get it.”

Kyungsoo looks down at the menu and almost cries. It’s such a simple thing. Knowing a small detail about someone and remembering it. But it makes Kyungsoo so happy that Chanyeol remembers and knows that Kyungsoo would want to choose the wine.

“Would you mind trying different wines, or do you just want to buy a bottle,” Kyungsoo asks looking at all the options. He feels like a kid in a candy shop. He can’t keep the giddiness out of his voice. Chanyeol laughs.

“Well, let’s get an appetizier, main dish, and dessert and a wine to go with each?”

Kyungsoo glances up at Chanyeol with a smile so big his cheeks hurt, “You’re perfect.”

They do exactly that and Chanyeol perseveres through the wine. Kyungsoo can see Chanyeol flinch while drinking most and the amount poured gets smaller each time. But the food and wine are both amazing and Kyungsoo can’t really remember a better date. They go to see a movie afterward and then go home.

Chanyeol dawdles by Kyungsoo’s door, holding onto his hands so that Kyungsoo can’t unlock his door and go in.

“Chanyeol…”

“I know,” he sighs, “I just don’t want this night to end.”

Kyungsoo nods in agreement.

“But you have to get up at an ungodly hour. You’re sure you had a good time,” Chanyeol asks biting at his bottom lip.

“It was the best date I’ve ever been on.”

Chanyeol nods and glances at Kyungsoo’s lips. Kyungsoo smirks and licks his lips. He feels a little bad for teasing Chanyeol but he wouldn’t still be waiting here if Chanyeol would just kiss him. Chanyeol stares at Kyungsoo’s lips and his own lips part and his breathing gets a little heavier. He tears his eyes away and runs a hand through his hair.

“Chanyeol,” Kyungsoo whispers, “Just kiss me already.”

Chanyeol smiles brightly, grabs Kyungsoo’s face and slots their lips together. It’s a bright moment where all Kyungsoo can feel is Chanyeol against him. It’s heated but innocent and Kyungsoo loves every second. All too soon, Chanyeol is pulling away, still smiling.

“Goodnight, Kyungsoo. I’ll text you tomorrow.”

“You better,” Kyungsoo says trying for a stern voice but his smile ruins it. He unlocks his door and calls Baekhyun to tell him about the date.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know!!! It's been forever and I'm super sorry. Endings are always really hard for me to write so I end up stalling out. Hopefully the final chapter will be up soon. I hope you liked this one! This is probably my longest fic yet and it's almost done! As always, thoughts, comments, concerns?


	26. Epilogue

~Three Months Later~

Kyungsoo is putting the finishing touches on his hair when the doorbell sounds through his apartment. It took him about 3 times longer than it does Baekhyun to push it up at the front but considering they’re going on their first double it didn’t seem fair to try and guilt Baekhyun into coming over to do it for him which is why he’s still only half dressed.

“Hang on,” he yells at Chanyeol through the door. He hears Chanyeol laugh and Kyungsoo fondly rolls his eyes as he dashes back into his room to put on the Baekhyun approved outfit laid out on his bed. He’d roll his eyes fondly at that, too, if he didn’t already do that several times with Baekhyun the night before when he’d pushed his way into the apartment saying something about refusing to go to a club with a walking fashion disaster.

This is their second attempt at a double date. The first was canceled because Sehun decided to be a brat, according to Kyungsoo. If you ask Baekhyun it’s because Sehun was sick but Kyungsoo’s pretty sure that’s just the rose colored glasses Baekhyun has on for everything pertaining to Sehun. Kyungsoo can’t really say anything considering how he is with Chanyeol. He smiles softly to himself. 

Jumping out of his thoughts when the doorbell rings again, Kyungsoo quickly throws on his clothes, grabs his wallet, cellphone and keys and opens the door to Chanyeol. Kyungsoo’s eyes drag up and down Chanyeol’s body as Chanyeol smirks at him. It really shouldn’t be fair for someone to look this good, he thinks. 

“You look pretty great yourself,” Chanyeol says. Kyungsoo looks up at Chanyeol, eyes wide and lips slightly parted. Kyungsoo is about 95% sure Chanyeol can read his mind at this point considering how well he’s able to guess at his thoughts. Chanyeol leans down and gives him a quick kiss. He grabs Kyungsoo’s hand and starts leading him down the stairs of their apartment.

“I can’t read minds, you’re just transparent,” Chanyeol teases.

“See, how’d you guess at what I was thinking TWICE if you can’t read minds?”

“Kyungsoo, everything you think and feel is written clearly on your face.”

“Lies,” Kyungsoo murmurs through a small smile.

“You’re only good at covering it from people who don’t know you. Even Jongdae can see clearly what you’re thinking.”

“Shut up,” Kyungsoo replies small smile turning into a full blown grin. He loves this. They chat easily as they make their way to meet up with Sehun and Baekhyun at Loophole. 

They walk in and it’s easy to spot Baekhyun and Sehun at the bar. Baekhyun is sitting on a stool with his arm slung around Sehun’s shoulders. Sehun is standing next to him with his legs spread wide for Baekhyun to be able to do so. Kyungsoo smiles and Chanyeol scoffs and shakes his head as they walk up.

“How does it feel to be tall for once, Baekhyun,” Kyungsoo teases. Baekhyun flips him off and continue sipping his drink. Chanyeol, Kyungsoo, and Sehun all laugh. Baekhyun sets down his drink and throws a soft punch to Sehun’s ribs. 

“Oof, you wound me,” Sehun winces and grabs his ribs. 

“Oh shut up, I did not. Dramatic little shit.,” Baekhyun murmurs fondly.

Kyungsoo sits on the stool next to Baekhyun and Yixing immediately puts a drink in front of him. Chanyeol sits beside him and puts a hand on his thigh. Kyungsoo looks over at him and Chanyeol squeezes and smiles reassuringly. 

“Drink up, Soo, we’re gonna dance,” Baekhyun says picking up Kyungsoo’s glass and forcing the straw into his mouth. Kyungsoo sputters but smiles as he starts drinking it down.

“Wooo,” Baekhyun screams as Kyungsoo sucks up the last bits of the very alcoholic drink. He’s pretty sure it was straight liquor over ice. Baekhyun must have paid Yixing to give it to him but he’s not complaining. He honestly can’t remember being happier. 

Baekhyun pulls him out to the dance floor. He expects Sehun and Chanyeol to follow instead he sees them take his and Baekhyun’s seats, clink their beers together, and turn to talk to Yixing. Kyungsoo smiles again. It seems plastered on his face. Baekhyun stops them in the middle of the floor.

“It’s good to see you smile,” Baekhyun yells over the heavy bass thumping through the floor.

“Same to you,” Kyungsoo says. They start dancing and Kyungsoo can’t believe that a little under a year ago he was so unsatisfied with life. He glances at Baekhyun and then over to Chanyeol and Sehun. He couldn't imagine himself happier anywhere else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, that's it. I like HEAs so that's what you got~ I hope you liked it. :D


End file.
